The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. You can read about the background to this bill in our earlier Insight. In the words of the Companies House Chief Executive, Louise Smyth, the Act represents the " most significant and far-reaching changes to the...

The UK government's long-awaited Online Safety Act (OSA), which has finally received royal assent, aims to create a new regulatory framework to protect users from objectionable content and make the online world a safer place. The coming into force of the OSA represents a seismic shift in the regulatory environment...

FSA Board discusses and plans approach on precision breeding The Food Standards Agency (FSA) Board met on 21 September 2023 to discuss and decide on aspects of the new process to regulate the use of precision-bred organisms for use in food and feed. Following agreement on the FSA Board's preferred...

EU Parliament Joint Committees adopt report on prohibiting products made with forced labour On 16 October 2023, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) adopted a report on the proposal for a regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the...

Approaching global employees the same way as US employees often fails because it neglects to consider cultural and legal differences, which can lead to misunderstandings and compliance issues that may mean that the business is not as protected as it should be. Instead, companies should adopt a more localized approach...

One of the main areas of concern at the heart of the public debate about the protection of minors online is age assurance: to give children greater protection, it is necessary for content and platform providers to check the age of their users. This is particularly necessary when regulations prohibit...

Several months ago, the European Commission released a draft regulation designed to fundamentally redraw the standard essential patent (SEP) licensing landscape in the EU. The draft regulation has resulted in significant commentary from all sides of the SEP licensing debate. Recently, it has drawn differing opinions from the committees of...

Streamlined support, personable responses and an enhanced consumer experience: it is easy to see why generative AI-powered chatbots have captured the attention of businesses throughout the world. However, enabling a generative AI large language model (LLM)-powered bot to interact with consumers raises a number of nuanced considerations and significant risks...

SRA updates guidance on law firm risk assessments On 21 September 2023, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) updated its guidance on law firm risk assessments that applies to all firms subject to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. The guidance aims...

AI and employment law The wider application of artificial intelligence (AI) and the implications for employment law is the subject of a House of Commons library briefing published this summer. Our Insight looks at recent developments in relation to AI in the workplace. On 28 September, our compliance webinar series...