Equal pay for men and women has been enshrined in UK law since 1970. Since then, and particularly since the turn of the century, equal pay claims have tended to take the form of mass claims in the public and retail sectors. In recent years, however, there has been renewed focus on individual equal pay claims. We expect that the Financial Conduct Authority will step up its scrutiny of equal pay and remuneration policies.
On 11 November 2022, the Ministry of Ecological Transition answered the Confindustria’s question on whether the packaging of medicines for human use, medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices must comply with the environmental labelling requirements set forth in Article 219, Section 5, of Legislative Decree 152/2006, starting from 1 January 2023.
On 9 December 2022, the Italian Government preliminary approved the draft legislative decree implementing Directive EU 2019/1937 (so called “Whistleblowing Directive”), aimed at protecting whistleblowers against retaliation and other negative consequences.
Several Regions and Autonomous Provinces published the measures requiring medical device companies to pay, within 30 days, payback amounts aimed at covering the overrun of the expenditure ceiling for the purchase of medical devices for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
On 9 December 2022, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council met to discuss a possible amendment to Art. 120 of Regulation 745/2017, with the purposes of deferring the transitional periods provided therein.
The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care has announced that the voluntary scheme payment percentage for 2023 will be set at 26.5% of sales for 2023 (representing almost GBP 3.3 billion). This is a further major increase to last year’s VPAS significant rate rise to 15% (around GBP 1.8 billion, rising from GBP 0.6 billion in 2021).
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled OFAC Designates Major Russian Financial Institutions and Issues New and Amended Russia-Related General Licenses; New FAQs on 20 December 2022. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
On 8 December 2022, the United States and Croatia signed their first convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion with respect to taxes on income. With this development, Croatia becomes the latest, and the only remaining, European Union member state to sign its first tax convention with the US.
The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products has streamlined the procedure for applying for the national code (NC) of centrally authorized medicinal products. In order to have more efficient management, this change has been included in a guide containing information on the documents required for the assignment of the NC. From now on it will be possible to send the NC application as soon as the final texts have been adopted by the applicant and the regulatory agencies. Finally, it will also be possible to present the European Commission’s decision in English.
The legal framework for the labelling of vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat is continuously evolving and also differs from country to country. In Switzerland, the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office had put forward a very strict interpretation, deeming as deceptive and thus prohibited any use of animal designations in the labelling of vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives. In a recent decision, the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich rejected this strict approach and deemed the use of the terms “planted.chicken”, “like chicken”, “like pork”, “pulled pork”, “vegan pork” or “chicken from plants” on the packaging of vegan meat alternatives as not deceptive.