Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Canada introduces additional designations on 21 Russian oligarchs, their family members and close associates on 10 May 2022. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Canada introduces additional designations on 19 Russian senior defence officials and 5 defence sector entities on 10 May 2022. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Russia imposes blocking sanctions on foreign energy companies on 12 May 2022. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
In an article published for ELA briefing, Jon Tuck and Richard Cook discuss the implications of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Mercer v Alternative Future Group, considering whether workers participating in protected industrial action are protected from action short of dismissal under the Trade Unions and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The Baker McKenzie London Employment team is delighted to welcome you back to our virtual mini-series, “Employment Rights: is 2022 the year of enforcement?”, with episode three, where we turn our attention to National Minimum Wage, a topic that has the potential to be quite tricky to navigate for employers and one where we have already seen significant enforcement activity by HMRC over the past few years. In this episode, Stephen Ratcliffe and Oliver Moreton cover some of the key issues that employers need to consider, including the different types of work under the legislation, what counts as working time, the payments that count towards minimum wage, and the deductions that reduce pay for the purposes of minimum wage calculations.
We’re pleased to announce the publication of the third edition of Ukrainian Laws in Wartime: Guide for International and Domestic Businesses. This guide provides a brief overview of the key features of such wartime legislation. It is structured as a set of responses to the most common questions raised and considered by international and Ukrainian businesses these days
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published a report on 23 May 2022 which considered the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on product safety.
The report provides a framework for considering the impact of AI consumer products on existing product safety and liability policy. This framework seeks to support the work of policymakers by highlighting the main considerations that should be taken into account when evaluating and developing product safety and liability policy for AI consumer products. No timeline is stated in the report for that evaluation/ development to take place, but the report makes clear the view that work is needed to ensure the UK’s product safety and liability regime can deal with AI developments.
Through the EU Directive on Restructuring and Insolvency of 20 June 2019 (EUR 2019/1023, “Directive”), the European Union has imposed an obligation on its member states to offer a more attractive and flexible restructuring scheme in their respective local law. The initial deadline to do so had been 17 July 2021. Only a handful of countries (most notably Germany and The Netherlands) had implemented the Directive within the initial deadline, whilst the other countries made use of the possibility to ask for a one year extension.
Following the government’s announcement of the creation of a new Future System Operator to oversee the UK’s energy system including emerging technologies and the arrival of the UK Energy Security Strategy, on 8 April 2022, the UK government published a package of proposals in support of UK hydrogen policy, including in particular a policy paper titled “Hydrogen Investor Roadmap: leading the way to net zero”. The paper reiterates the government’s pledge made in the Strategy to double its 5GW low-carbon hydrogen target to 10GW by 2030, with the intention that at least half of this production will come from electrolytic hydrogen. The paper aligns with the approach laid out in the Strategy to utilise excess offshore wind power to drive down hydrogen production costs
The German Federal Ministry of the Environment has published a draft bill for a “Single-Use Plastic Fund Act”. The bill transposes the extended producer responsibility requirements as set out in Art. 8 para. 1 to 7 of the Single-use Plastic Directive into German law. In the future, manufacturers of single-use plastic products must cover the costs of waste collection, cleaning up litter resulting from those products and the subsequent transport and treatment of such litter.