Osborne Clarke's best legal reads of the week - November 2 - 6
Published on 6th Nov 2015
What are the top reads of the week around the web written by Osborne Clarke people? Which posts have been shared the most via social?
Here’s the best legal reads of the week…
New guidelines have been published today which will be used by Courts faced with the challenge of fining companies and individuals for breaches of health and safety law as well as certain food safety and hygiene offences. The guidelines will come into force on 1 February 2016 for any defendant sentenced on or after that date. Very similar to those put in place in 2014 for environmental offences, these guidelines provide judges a step by step approach to use when approaching punishment, critically also looking at a company’s turnover when reaching a range of appropriate fines based on culpability and harm factors. Read the full update on the new guidelines here.
This has been another busy quarter in the world of competition law, with a particular focus on e-commerce. The European Commission’s Digital Single Market initiative continues to gather momentum, while multiple competition authorities target online sales restrictions. Read the update in full here.
This week the Supreme Court handed down judgment in two cases concerning the enforceability of alleged penalty clauses: Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi and ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis. In both cases the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the disputed clauses. The decision redefines the test for determining whether a contractual term is a penalty. The two cases, which raised similar issues and so were heard together, mark the first time in over a century that the Supreme Court (or, its predecessor, the House of Lords) has considered the ambit of the rule against penalties in English law. The Supreme Court had a number of questions to address. Read more here.
The terms of an M&A deal which reduced the consideration payable to a seller in the event of his breaching the restrictive covenants which applied to him under the share purchase agreement (SPA) was upheld by the Supreme Court today. In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had previously concluded that the clauses operated as a penalty and were therefore unenforceable. Read more here.
Sharing platforms are now an important part of many business sectors, and an innovative and disruptive force within the wider economy. Accordingly, the European Commission is keen to examine the potential and impact of platforms within its ongoing Digital Single Market initiative, and to look at related competition issues. So how do these developments affect the sharing economy, where are the risks for your business – and how can you influence the direction of regulation? Read the blog update here.
New legislation came into force on 1 October 2015 which affects the rights of suppliers of IT services against insolvent customers. Any suppliers (or anyone seeking to acquire an IT business) caught within the new definition will need to be aware of what these changes mean. Read more about them here.
