Recently in Commercial Law Category

A survey looking into how businesses have been affected by new bribery legislation implemented last summer has revealed that fewer than one in five has cut levels of corporate entertaining.

The survey also shows that sales for private boxes at Royal Ascot are up 17%, suggesting that the hospitality market remains buoyant.

The survey suggests that the fears of many about the impact of the new laws appear to have been unfounded. Prior to the implementation of the legislation last summer, commentators had suggested that the new laws would hinder UK firms in their bid to compete with rivals from abroad who are subject to less stringent anti-corruption legislation.

The Government is facing calls from opposition-party Labour to amend the law on mis-selling of financial products to help small businesses.

The calls come in the wake of stories that small businesses across the UK were mis-sold 'interest rate hedging' products which have since lost investors millions as rates have remained at all-time lows.

The Financial Services Authority, which regulates financial institutions at present, is now conducting a review of the claims made by small business. This could lead to an inquiry into how major lenders, including Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS all mis-sold these products to small businesses.

Legal commentators analysing the disclosures of James Murdoch to the Leveson Inquiry this week have stated that they suggest that there was a real risk of bias during NewsCorps failed takeover of BskyB last year.

Mr Murdoch took the witness stand at the enquiry to answer questions relating to the central question of media influence over politicians. During testimony he revealed that he was in regular email contact with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Mr Murdoch later also disclosed that he had phoned Mr Hunt for a private conversation the day after a meeting between the pair had been cancelled as it had been deemed inappropriate

A union survey of 20,000 shop workers has revealed that more than 75% are opposed to plans to suspend Sunday trading laws during the Olympic Games this summer. The survey also concluded that just 12% of those asked were actually in favour of the move.

The survey comes after the Government recently announced that they will change the law restricting opening hours for large stores during the Olympic Games.

Currently legislation restricts opening to just six hours on a Sunday.

The Government has revealed that it will suspend Sunday-trading laws during the Olympic Games this summer. The move had been widely anticipated, but it was thought the Government had left it too late to make the necessary legislative changes in time for the start of the Games in July.

The announcement is expected in chancellor George Osborne's budget announcement this week, with emergency legislation expected to be enacted as soon as Easter.

Under the present trading laws, stores larger than 280m² are only permitted to open for six hours each Sunday. The law is included in part of the Sunday Trading Act 1994, and restricts those larger shops to opening between the hours of ten in the morning and six in the evening.

The Government yesterday announced that there will be a new body to oversee competition in UK markets, set up and in operation as early as 2014. The changes, announced yesterday, represent the biggest shake up in competition law for a generation.

The new body will be called the Competition and Markets Authority, and will subsume the role in competition currently played by the Office of Fair Trading and the entire Competition Commission.

The new body will look at all elements of competition law, including cartel enforcement and merger analysis, as well as undertaking analysis of markets to assess whether legislative changes could make them more competitive for consumers.

Shareholders of the now state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland are to sue the bank over claims that they were misled by former bosses during a rights issue in 2008.

Angry investors yesterday announced that they will issue a £2.4bn claim against the bank and several of its former directors including chairman Sir Tom McKillop and ex-chief executive Fred Goodwin.

Letters from the RBOS Action Group are due to be delivered to the bank and 17 former directors. The letters claim that investors were actively misled in a prospectus which was published as part of a £12bn rights issue by RBS, which raised money to fund the purchase of the Dutch investment bank ABN Amro.

With just six months to go until the opening of the world's greatest sporting event in London, it has been revealed that those attending the closing ceremony will be unable to buy any official merchandise at the event.

It is understood that the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was informed of the news a few weeks ago, too late to be capable of doing anything to change the situation.

The situation has arisen because the closing ceremony falls on a Sunday, and is therefore subject to trading laws which mean that large retailers can only open for restricted hours on a Sunday.

David Cameron's plans to grant shareholders the power to veto directors' salaries and bonuses has come under attack from business leaders who say that the plans will be almost impossible to implement, and will fail to influence businesses in the correct way.

Last week Mr Cameron announced plans to end the culture of executives "patting each other on the back whilst handing out each other's pay rises". To do so Mr Cameron announced plans to hand shareholders in businesses a vote on top pay packages, and on payments for failure.

However the Institute of Directors, which represents many of the UK's top executives in both large and small businesses has hit back, saying that the plans would create swathes of litigation and could hinder companies when they search for the best candidates for the top jobs.

As the Ministry of Justice opened the new Rolls Building in London last month, it announced that some nine out of ten commercial cases handled by London law firms have an international link.

The announcement confirms London as a hub for international commercial law, and cements the reputation of the capital as an unrivalled centre for international commercial dispute settlement.

The Rolls Building was formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 7 December as a specialist centre for the resolution of financial, business and property disputes.

The Law Commission has spoken out in favour of new legislation which would make it an insurer's primary obligation to pay valid claims after a reasonable time. Insurers who delay payment unreasonably or who fail to pay a valid claim should be made liable to pay damages for foreseeable loss, they say.

At the moment, some small businesses in Britain are waiting as long as six months to receive a valid insurance payout, with no recourse for compensation for the delay. The Law Commission is looking to make changes designed to help small businesses who are hit by unexpected events.

Under the present law in England and Wales, a policyholder can sue their insurer if they are taking a long time to settle a valid claim, or are refusing to pay at all. However, they can only sue for payment of the claim, not for any losses which they have suffered as a result of the delay.

Kweku Adoboli, the UBS trader who recently cost the Swiss bank over $2 billion through fraudulent trading, was today (21 October) committed to crown court.

He faces two counts of fraud and two counts of false accounting carried out during his three years at UBS.

Mr Adoboli was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Southwark Crown Court, the court which specialises in financial criminal cases, on 22 November for a plea and case management hearing.