The Bribery Act 2010 will come in to force this Friday, 1 July 2011. Much has been written about its likely implications. At the start of the debate, it would even be fair to say there was a degree...

In difficult economic times employers will inevitably look to reduce the costs of employment. However, achieving this in practice can be fraught with legal, practical and also emotive issues. In some circumstances contractual change may be achieved ...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that workers are only entitled to holiday pay under regulation 16 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) when they actually exercise their right to take the leave in question.  The EAT made...

Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has handed down its decision in the case of  KHS AG v Winfried Schulte, an important case about whether a worker on long term sick leave has the right to carry forward annual leave accrue...

Having inherited the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 on taking office, the UK Government had pledged to review them. That process is now underway but it seems the EU may pip the Government to the post, having conducted its own review of the parent D...

Precis Having inherited the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 on taking office, the UK Government had pledged to review them. That process is now underway but it seems the EU may pip the Government to the post, having conducted its own review of the ...

From Wednesday 26 March 2014 WorldBridge will no longer be providing visa services for applicants applying for a UK visa from the US. The visa processing service, which until how has been provided by WorldBridge, will be provided by VFS Global from ...

In light of the significant influence...

In Germany, the provision of temporary personnel is strictly regulated by the German Temporary Employment Act (“AÜG”). The principle is straightforward: the agency is the employer and supplies the temporary employees to the hirer. A...

For one who is contemplating becoming a self employed business person for the first time, there is more to consider than 'the franchise'.  The franchise is merely a method of establishing a business.  Of course one has to consider many ...

Editorial Last year we devoted an issue of Franchising Focus to the international market place in view of the increasing interest in cross border franchising and in global growth by so many systems. There have been a number of changes in the la...

Moldova We are providing more detail on Moldova as the provisions in many respects are quite unusual to an extent which makes one wonder how much the draftsman understood franchising.  Moldova's approach has been to provide a Chapter i...

Introduction The long-awaited regulations on the Administration of Commercial Franchise Operations (the 'New Regulations') were promulgated by the State Council of the PRC on 6 February 2007, and will take effect on 1 May 2007. They apply equally t...

New filing and information disclosure rules relating to franchising regimes in China came into effect on 1 May 2007. Following the implementation of these rules  a clearer franchise regime has come into shape in China. The Filing Rules The Fi...

Franchising is expanding Our franchising team is currently working on a number of exciting new instructions. Most of these have an international flavour and it is clear that franchising is now the major way to build brands in other countries. Our ...

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which received royal assent on 8 May 2008, introduces a new section into the Act allowing the IC to impose a fine where there has been a serious breach of the eight data protection 'principles' set out in th...

In the UK, the first owner of a copyright work is the author, unless the work is created by an employee in the course of their employment. In that case, the copyright will belong to the employer unless the parties have agreed otherwise (eg between u...

The courts continue to be asked by franchisees to limit the scope of their post termination restrictive covenants. It is becoming key for franchisors to show that the duration of their restrictions reflect the time that it would...

Franchise systems typically include clauses that limit or exclude liability as a means of managing risk between the franchisor and franchisee and between the franchise business and its customers. Clauses that exclude or limit liability are a regular ...

We have notified you in an earlier e-briefing of additional powers being granted to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to take enforcement action against breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA). A new power to is...

Franchising is an often underestimated sector of the South African economy. With millions of South Africans seeking employment, small business is positioned...

The Advocate-General (AG) to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has issued his opinion in response to several claims in France against internet giant Google, relating to the operation of its search-related advertising service Adwords. Google's Adw...

As the countdown towards the scheduled introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) in April 2010 continues, the Environment Agency is due to issue its CRC qualification packs to any business that has at least one half-hourly electricity me...

Nearly all the remaining provisions of the Companies Act 2006 came into force on 1 October. How does this affect you? Any reference to the Companies Act 1985 in your documentation will need to be up...

The block exemption provides a safe harbour from the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements contained in Article 81(1) EC. It can apply to any agreement between parties at different levels of the supply chain where that agreement contains rest...

The Dti has, this week, announced plans to introduce a series of measures designed to give greater protection to certain agency workers. The proposals follow the publication of a green paper by the European Commission, in which it vows to look again...

Reaction to last week’s announcement that agency workers are to be given equal employment rights to comparable permanent employees after 12 weeks service, has been swift but also mixed (see Full Article