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Ads & Brands Law Digest: October 2023
02 November 2023Welcome to the October 2023 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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Key takeaways for employers from recent DPC guidance on SARs – Linda Hynes comments for PDP
Press
02 November 2023Linda Hynes looks at the recent guidance issued by the DPC on managing subject access requests and considers the key takeaways for employers when dealing with such requests.
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Is an opposition to ‘woke’ politics a protected philosophical belief?
02 November 2023In the latest decision on workplace ‘culture war’ clashes, a tribunal has found that an opposition to critical race theory amounts to a protected philosophical belief. It’s a further example of how employers have a heightened risk of claims in the context of increasingly polarised public discourse, as employees with strongly conflicting beliefs all have a right not to suffer discrimination.
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UK immigration options for competitive esports players
01 November 2023The esports industry is rapidly evolving. As a popular host of international competitive events, the UK needs to continue to attract and retain competitive esports players. An esports visa may be in the pipeline, but for now, esports players should be aware of UK’s available immigration routes.
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Lewis Silkin enters Top 15 on Social Mobility Employer Index
Press Release
01 November 2023Lewis Silkin has improved its ranking in the Social Mobility Employer Index for the fourth consecutive year, rising to 14th place - up from 18th last year.
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AI, recruitment and the law: how do equality and data protection laws regulate this process?
31 October 2023The regulation of AI is front and centre of the minds of policymakers around the World. Central to concerns raised about the rapidly increasing use of AI are the risks of bias and discrimination, particularly in the employment context. We look at how existing equality and data protection laws apply to these kinds of automated decisions.
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Discrimination and bias in AI recruitment: a case study
31 October 2023Barely a day goes by without the media reporting the potential benefits of or threats from AI. AI is being used more and more in workplace decisions: to make remuneration and promotion decisions; to allocate work; award bonuses; manage performance and make dismissal decisions. One of the common concerns is the propensity of AI systems to return biased or discriminatory outcomes. By working through a case study about the use of AI in recruitment, we examine the risks of unlawful discrimination and how that might be challenged in the employment tribunal.
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Equal Pay for all – Síobhra Rush comments for InBusiness magazine
Press
31 October 2023Síobhra Rush comments on the EU’s new Pay Transparency Directive and why now’s the time for employers to get their ducks in a row.
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Will the future world of work feature too few jobs or too few workers?
Press
31 October 2023The scale of AI change means that we cannot look at the past to predict the future. Niamh Crotty and Síobhra Rush discuss what shifts are predicted in the workforce by 2050.
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The new law on sexual harassment has been passed
27 October 2023The new law on prevention of sexual harassment has received Royal Assent. What do employers need to know, and what should they be doing now?
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Rory Campbell and Conal Scullion report on the proposed EU Packaging Laws for Retail News
Press
26 October 2023The EU published its Revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive at the end of 2022. In this article, Rory Campbell and Conal Scullion report on the proposed EU laws fighting back against waste packaging and what they mean for Irish retail businesses.
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Cap on bankers’ bonuses to be lifted: what does it mean for firms?
26 October 2023It’s official. The cap on bankers’ bonuses is being lifted. There are some opportunities for firms here, but it doesn’t mark the return of excessive risk taking.
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Neil Parkes comments for World Intellectual Property Review on the issue of copyright infringement when using AI tools
Press
26 October 2023Neil Parkes comments for World Intellectual Property Review on the recent case, Universal & Concord vs. Anthropic, an artificial intelligence firm, for the alleged use of copyrighted music lyrics to train its AI systems.
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Neurodiversity, employment policies and employment claims: what’s the latest?
25 October 2023With neurodiversity becoming a more prominent focus of diversity strategies and litigation, it may be time for employers to think differently about people who think differently.
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FCA fines Equifax £11 million for 2017 data breach - five years after the ICO
25 October 2023This insight provides a summary of The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s (“FCA”) fines to Equifax Ltd (“Equifax”) £11,164,400 for failing to manage and monitor the security of UK consumer data it had outsourced to its parent company in the US, following a data breach in 2017.
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Big Immigration Health Surcharge increase for Q1 2024
24 October 2023The Immigration Health Surcharge will increase from 16 January 2024 at the earliest. The new yearly rate for most affected applicants will jump from £624 to £1,035. Employers and affected applicants should consider applying ahead of the rise where possible.
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Hosting providers/Online platforms: are you ready to comply with your DSA Content Moderation obligations by 17 February 2024?
20 October 2023The European Commission managed Digital Services Act (DSA) Transparency Database (TDB) finally went live for very large online platforms and search engines (those which have an average of 45 million active monthly users in the EU) (VLOPs/VLOSEs) on 26 September 2023, following a month long delay due to controversy over its information requirements.
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Sports Q&A: Non-competes
19 October 2023Our Q&A looks at the government's proposal on non-competes and what sports businesses should be doing about this now.
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Lewis Silkin recognised with top rankings in Chambers UK 2024 for Employment, Immigration: Business, Information Technology, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment: Advertising and Marketing, and Retail
19 October 2023We now have 23 practice rankings, including nine in Band 1. The firm has 68 ranked individuals, 13 of whom are new entries. This strong performance follows similarly robust results in the Legal 500 UK earlier this month.
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Further changes to SMS updating requirements for employers
17 October 2023The Home Office has announced two important changes that impact employers who hold a licence to sponsor overseas workers. Authorising Officers and Key Contacts on sponsor licences will be asked to provide their national insurance number. Sponsors registered with Companies House will be asked to provide their Companies House reference number.