Recent Articles

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  16/05/2024

  United Kingdom

  A Roadmap to the Overseas Funds Regime

  HM Treasury and the FCA jointly published a Roadmap on 1 May 2024 for implementing the Overseas Funds Regime (the “OFR”).  This follows on from the FCA’s December 2023 Consultation Paper on Implementing the OFR (see our previous article on this here). Who does this impact?Operators of EEA UCITS funds (excluding money market funds (“MMFs”)) that either are within the Temporary Marketing Permissions Regime (“TMPR”), or who wish to market to UK retail investorsUK Distributors of non-UK UCITS funds (excluding MMFs) with a UK retail...

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  16/05/2024

  South Africa

  Whistleblowers in the Rail Industry: the LAC gives one a green light, whilst another gets derailed

  Fraud, corruption and irregularities are an unfortunate reality within the South African landscape and those who dare to expose such malpractices, often facing significant professional and personal repercussions.  Protection of such employees and available remedies in law are therefore crucial.  Interestingly, the Labour Appeal Court (“LAC”) has recently ruled on two such cases concerning whistleblowing, both arising in the rail industry, in respect of Mr. Solomon Kekana (“Kekana”), formerly from the Safety Regulator, and Ms. Onica Ngoye (“Ngoye”),...

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  16/05/2024

  Germany

  News from the CJEU on GDPR compensation

  Updated version of the article published on 25 January 2024The CJEU clarifies the requirements under Art. 82 GDPR. In addition, further CJEU rulings of practical relevance are pending.At the beginning of this year and at the end of 2023 the European Court of Justice (CJEU) published several rulings on the relevant standard damages under data protection law in Art. 82 of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in which the CJEU concretised the requirements of Art. 82 GDPR in important and previously controversial points. The CJEU relied on its Judgment from 4 May 2023 (C-300/21)...

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  16/05/2024

  Czech Republic

  Flexi-amendment to the Czech Labour Code

  CZ

  The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has published a draft bill of the amendment to the Labour Code, which will allow more flexibility in employment relationships. Both employees and employers should benefit from these changes. The new rules concern the probationary period, termination of employment, working time, salary statements and many other topics. It is anticipated that the amendment will come into force in January 2025.One of the biggest changes is the possibility to agree a longer probationary period of up to four months with non-managerial employees (the current maximum is...

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  16/05/2024

  Europe

  A broader interpretation of "substance or composition" - good news for patentees at the EPO?

  A recent decision from the EPO Boards of Appeal (T 1252/20) potentially paves the way for more diverse products to be patentable in Europe using the medical use claim format.The background:Article 53(c) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) excludes methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body from patentability. However, this does not apply to products, in particular substances or compositions, for use in any of these methods.Furthermore, Articles 54(4) and (5) EPC provide that a claim to a known substance...

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  16/05/2024

  United Kingdom

  Bet365 reaches regulatory settlement with the Gambling Commission

  On 4 April 2024, the Gambling Commission (the “Commission”) announced that it had reached a regulatory settlement with Bet365. The settlement comprised a payment in lieu of a financial penalty totalling £582,120 across two licensees.Following a compliance assessment in March 2022, the Commission commenced a regulatory review under s.116 of the Gambling Act 2005. The licence review found Bet365 in breach of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice between May 2021 and September 2022 in respect of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (“AML”) obligations...

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