Best legal reads of the week - January 31 - February 6

It’s that time again, when we share the reads of the week around the web written by Osborne Clarke people.

Our top five reads:

• Consulting on collective redundancies: What does the Advocate General’s opinion  mean for employers?

On Thursday the Advocate General handed down what appears to be a welcome opinion in the “Woolworths” case on the issue of when the obligation to collectively consult on proposed redundancies is triggered in accordance with the European Collective Redundancies Directive.

• Social media, financial promotions and a growing market: New FCA paper discusses crowdfunding and its regulation

The Financial Conduct Authority this week published a paper titled “A review of the regulatory regime for crowdfunding and the promotion of non-readily realisable securities by other media”. This isn’t a consultation paper and doesn’t invite responses; it is a review of some aspects of crowdfunding regulation and of the growth of the crowdfunding market. Read more about the paper and areas of particular interest here.

• Article in Click Green – ‘Finding the balance on data protection and smart city technology‘

James Mullock, data commercialisation expert at Osborne Clarke, discusses why stable data rules are essential in the future roll-out of smart-city technology.

• Osborne Clarke’s quoted company company legal news update: February 2015

This week we published the first edition of Osborne Clarke’s quoted company legal and regulatory news update. Register for the monthly updates here.

• Simon Beswick discusses ‘Why a failure to update archaic laws will hinder the rise of the smart city’ in City A.M. 

With Uber and Google now going head-to-head in the battle to develop driverless car technology, the spotlight has fallen once again on the concept of the smart city. There is no absolute definition of what a smart city is, but the broad idea is to use digital technologies to create more efficient, responsive, and liveable urban environments.