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High Court enforces 12-month non-compete clause
28 April 2022The High Court has upheld a covenant restricting a solicitor from joining a competitor for 12 months following the termination of her employment. This decision reinforces the importance of carefully drafting restrictive covenants in employment contracts to ensure the scope of any restrictions go no further than is reasonably necessary to protect an employer’s legitimate business interests.
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Government consultation on reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts: an update (of sorts)
28 April 2022The government has confirmed that it is still analysing responses to its consultation on reforming non-compete clauses and that its response will be published in due course, following further research.
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An insight to what's happening in immigration law 2022
28 April 2022Immigration law changes continue at a pace during 2022 and employers need to be aware of key recent and upcoming developments.
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Gender pay gap reporting: 5 years on
28 April 2022Now that we’ve had gender pay gap reporting regulations for over 5 years, we’ve taken a look at the impact of the regime.
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Ireland: Key points from the recently announced Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill
26 April 2022The Irish government has approved the drafting of a Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill.
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The meaning of “knowingly concerned” for breaches of financial promotion restrictions – welcome clarification for directors
25 April 2022On 25 March 2022 the Court of Appeal held that a director who had been found “knowingly concerned” in an investment communication made in breach of section 21 of FSMA was not liable because she believed that the communication had been sufficiently authorised. The clarification of what constitutes “knowledge” in these circumstances will be welcomed by directors and professional advisors.
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The Impact of Brexit upon Intellectual Property Rights and Disputes
25 April 2022When the Brexit ‘transition period’ came to an end at 11pm GMT on 31st December 2020, it brought with it some significant implications for IP rightsholders across trade marks, designs, copyright and domain names.
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Brexit: Your IP Questions Answered
25 April 2022The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, and a post-Brexit Trade Agreement was finally struck on Christmas Eve 2020, but the important Brexit changes affecting the owners of registered IP rights took effect from 11pm GMT on 31 December 2020.
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Linda Hynes comments for RTE’s Morning Ireland radio show on the new Work Life Balance Bill in Ireland
22 April 2022The Work-Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill was brought to the Ireland Cabinet on 20 April 2022. The new bill aims to give effect to an EU Work-Life Balance Directive.
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Positive action in the workplace
Inbrief
21 April 2022Positive action (called affirmative action in the US) involves taking steps to favour or encourage people from protected groups to make up for historic barriers or lack of opportunity. This Inbrief looks at the scope for taking lawful positive action in the workplace under British employment law.
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Gender pay gap reporting in Ireland: the current state of play
21 April 2022The long-awaited regulations setting out the detail for Irish employers’ gender pay gap reporting obligations are expected imminently. In this article we cover what we know and what we don’t yet know about the reporting obligations, how employers can prepare for gender pay gap reporting and compare UK and Irish legislation on gender pay gap reporting.
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Laura Ensor and Síobhra Rush explain how Ireland’s proposed auto-enrolment pension scheme is likely to work
21 April 2022In a recent article for Think Business, Síobhra Rush and Laura Ensor explain how the proposed auto-enrolment pension scheme is likely to work following the Irish government’s announcement on the principles of the proposed Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (the “auto-enrolment system”) for Ireland.
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Fair Remuneration for Authors and Performers in the Digital Content Directive: are you aware of your new obligations?
21 April 2022You probably heard about the controversial Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive [1] when it was first published back in 2019 (and supposed to be transposed into national law by 7 June 2021).
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Shipwrecking online pirates: we can’t wait for a change in the wind, we need to adjust their sails to force a change of course
20 April 2022As life begins to return to some sort of normality after the huge disruption caused by COVID, we have been reflecting on how the swift imposition of lockdowns and other restrictions escalated what was likely to be a greater shift to the consumption of digital entertainment content via the internet and streaming services; both the legitimate and illegal kinds.
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Employer Takeaways from the Annual Report of the Irish Data Protection Commission
14 April 2022The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) recently published its annual report for 2021 detailing the activities it undertook in 2021 and setting out its regulatory strategy and priorities for the next five years.
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Establishing a business presence in the UK
Inbrief
14 April 2022If you are a non-UK corporate body and you wish to establish a business presence in the UK, this brief guide covers the main issues you need to consider.
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Ads and Brand Law Digest April 2022
13 April 2022Welcome to the April 2022 edition of our Digest, covering legal and regulatory developments from the last few weeks relevant to advertising, marketing and brand-owning businesses. As usual, for each item we provide a succinct summary accompanied by a link to the full text of the relevant official source or our own report.
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Treading the payment tightrope: can you still rely on the ‘limited network exclusion’ or might you now need a licence to carry out regulated payment services?
13 April 2022The European Banking Authority (EBA) has recently published final guidelines on the application of the limited network exclusion (LNE) under the revised Payment Services Directive ((EU) 2015/2366) (PSD2). The guidelines apply to national competent authorities (NCA), which post-Brexit does not include the UK FCA. The UK FCA published its updated guidance on the application of the LNE under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) in November 2021, through PS21/19, PERG 15 of its Perimeter Guidance manual, and the latest version of its Payment Services and Electronic Money - Our Approach document.
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Sports Q&A: Conducting misconduct investigations
12 April 2022In an increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape, dealing with the intricacies of investigations can be fraught with difficulties, especially in a sports context. Often conducted under intense scrutiny, from the media and stakeholders, allegations need to be carefully and appropriately investigated to maintain your reputation and mitigate legal risk. In this Q&A we consider some of the key questions when conducting a investigation into your staff, coaches, officials or members.
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High Court in Hong Kong gives permission for witnesses to give video evidence
11 April 2022The High Court in Hong Kong has granted an application allowing witnesses based abroad to give evidence by video conferencing, even though the flight ban has been lifted.