With effect from 1 April 2020, the UK will start to levy a digital services tax at a rate of 2% on digital services revenues that are attributable to UK users.
The UK digital services tax (“UK DST”) is intended to apply to...more
Trade secrets in the UK are protected by both a longstanding equitable duty of confidence and, only very recently, a specific set of regulations. Since the 2018 Trade Secrets Regulations came into force, the question has been...more
Under English law, it’s clear that the key issue will be to understand and apply the specific terms of each contract, with the English courts looking to interpret contractual clauses by initially considering the natural and...more
A White Paper on Artificial Intelligence from the European Commission provides insight on how governments might change product safety and liability rules to address the issues arising from AI systems.
Five years ago, the...more
The European Patent Office has denied two patent applications on the grounds that an AI system cannot be listed as the inventor.
For the first time, the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a ruling on its approach to...more
The UK has announced that it will not implement a key change in the EU copyright regime after Brexit. As a result, for affected businesses, consistent Europe-wide digital compliance in the post-Brexit era just became a little...more
Following the result of the UK’s referendum in 2016 on leaving the European Union, the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the United Kingdom and the European Union on 23 January 2020 finally received Royal Assent from...more
An influential panel of experts in the UK has published a legal statement on the status of cryptoassets and smart contracts under English law. This development will help to move English law towards a clearer basis of...more
It’s all very well to issue regulatory guidance – but it’s what you do to enforce it that really counts. The UK financial services regulatory agencies have imposed fines exceeding $2 million on a UK bank that did not...more
The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019 (“Exit Date”). With Brexit fast approaching, on 25 November 2018 the EU and the UK announced their consensus on a withdrawal agreement that sets out the...more
ICT standardization is a key part of the European Union’s package of measures designed to improve Europe’s competitiveness and productivity. As part of the EU’s Digital Single Market (DSM) initiative, the European Commission...more
Copyright reform is a key part of the European Union’s program to create a Digital Single Market in the EU. The European Commission’s goal is to modernize the entire EU copyright regime to reflect the digital age....more
Since the European Union’s main aims include consumer protection and ensuring product safety, you might be forgiven for thinking that the EU’s rules in those areas would be clear and straightforward. But you would be wrong....more
The European Union has laid out a strategy to promote the growth of Artificial Intelligence technology in Europe. As so often with EU initiatives, the initiatives designed to implement the strategy are long on vision but...more
Linear TV and radio services are increasingly being consumed via the internet. Technical developments allowing the on-demand consumption of audio and audio-visual content on different user devices have also changed viewer...more
Geo-blocking is the practice of preventing internet users in one jurisdiction from accessing services elsewhere based on the user’s geographic location. The European Commission wants to eliminate geo-blocking within the EU –...more
The European Union (EU) has reached a provisional agreement on a proposed new Regulation on EU cross-border parcel delivery services. The European Commission’s aim is to make pricing and tariffs more transparent and give...more
The European Union (“EU”) has long had a focus on consumer protection of EU residents. A new proposed EU regulation is set to improve the cross-border enforcement regime for consumer protection legislation. The new rules will...more
The European Union (EU) has made reform of the e-commerce rules in Europe one of its main priorities for 2018.
The European Commission has already published two proposed Directives relating to cross-border e-commerce but...more
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The European Union (EU) has made reform of the e-commerce rules in Europe one of its main priorities for 2018.
The European Commission has already published two proposed Directives relating to cross-border...more
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The European Union has published its 2018 Work Programme which sets out a challenging agenda of legislative and regulatory change for the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sectors, to be delivered in conjunction...more
Every two years, the European Union updates the threshold values that trigger the need for a regulated public procurement exercise across Europe. The financial thresholds effective from January 1, 2018 have now been...more
The UK government has announced that it intends to write to all government contractors in order to make unilateral changes to all UK government contracts to comply with impending changes in EU data privacy law....more
As part of its Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission has identified the issue of combatting illegal content online as a key challenge for online platforms. It has now released guidance to online platforms...more
The EU has published a review of its vaunted Digital Single Market strategy, mid-way through the current five-year term of the European Commission. “On track, with room for improvement” summarises the official...more