Key developments on the agenda for businesses in March 2016 include the publication of gender pay gap regulations, the start of modern slavery reporting and the UK Budget.
REUTERS | Navesh Chitrakar
February 29, 2016
In-house agenda: March 2016
REUTERS | Tiksa Negeri
February 12, 2016
Modern slavery and human rights: new directions for company reporting
Outside the narrow world of those few of us who work as specialist advisors to companies and institutions on labour and human rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) have not had an enormous impact on broader legal practice; neither in terms of awareness, nor implementation. This will change significantly in the UK in the coming year, predominantly because of the impact of section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA).
REUTERS |
February 12, 2016
EU-US Privacy Shield agreement: the five things you need to know now
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently published its response to the news that political agreement has been reached on a new EU-US Privacy Shield to replace the Safe Harbor.
Most of what the ICO has to say will no longer be news to those that are following developments in the field closely, but the tone is calm, clear and reassuring, and this blog post provides a useful summary of where we are now in relation to the Safe Harbor.
REUTERS | Kacper Pempel
February 4, 2016
Cyber security: key questions for the board agenda
I was delighted to hear that our feature article in this month’s PLC Magazine has already attracted a lot of attention. Cyber security issues need to be placed on the board agenda sooner rather than later, and before a cyber breach occurs, not as a result of one. For further information, see our practice page.
REUTERS | Suzanne Plunkett
Last week Thomson Reuters hosted a seminar entitled Modern Slavery, Bribery and Corruption: Corporate Compliance with Legal Frameworks which coincided with the publication of two reports on the connection between modern Slavery and corruption from Verité and Liberty Asia.
An eminent panel including Nick Grono, CEO of the Freedom Fund, Dan Viederman, CEO of Verité, Duncan Jepson , CEO of Liberty Asia, Martina Vandenberg, Founder and President of the Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center and Mike Harris from World-Check discussed the findings of these reports and answered questions from a varied audience of in-house, legal and risk officers and academics.
REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
January 18, 2016
Supreme Court reinvigorates the proper purposes rule
The Supreme Court has provided helpful clarification on the scope of section 171 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) in Eclairs Group Ltd and Glengary Overseas Ltd v JKX Oil & Gas plc [2015] UKSC 71. Continue reading
REUTERS | Corbis
January 11, 2016
Dealing with whistleblowing claims: tips for in-house lawyers
In recent years, there has been considerable government intervention in whistleblowing. Responding to the perception that whistleblowing legislation was being exploited as a means of avoiding the compensatory cap for unfair dismissal claims, the government introduced a requirement that a disclosure is not protected unless it is reasonably believed to be made in the public interest.
REUTERS | Henry Romero
December 30, 2015
Hurry, must end soon! A sales season checklist for retailers
In 2015, more retailers than ever in the UK followed the lead of their US counterparts by running promotions on “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”, days that have become associated with frenzied bargain hunters seizing televisions and other goods, at unbelievable prices. As a result, retail sales slowed in December, so retailers attempted to extend that Black Friday “fever” by lining up new “not to be missed” offers in the important days leading up to Christmas. Many traditional Boxing Day sales started online even before Downton Abbey was on, with Amazon’s sale starting at 4pm on Christmas Day.
The most pressing issue for in-house lawyers in retail is embedding the right process before, during and after critical sales promotions to ensure that they can drive sales without eroding customer goodwill or attracting the bad feeling that leads to complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) and the bad publicity that accompanies such complaints.
REUTERS | Nikola Solic
December 10, 2015
Four lessons for companies from the UK SFO’s first DPA and first enforcement of the corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery
For the first time last week, a criminal court considered a failure by a company to prevent corruption under the Bribery Act 2010 (section 7) and approved the UK SFO’s first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). The case generated such interest that the public hearing on Monday had to be moved to a bigger courtroom to accommodate scores of lawyers and journalists (even then Practical Law’s own Morag Rea had to sit on the floor).
REUTERS | Carlos Barria
December 2, 2015
Chair’s Takeaways: The Future of Data Protection Forum
I was delighted to Chair the 2015 Future of Data Protection Forum last month. It was an exciting day full of interesting debates and practical takeaways for privacy practitioners.