With the majority of the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 provisions having entered into force on 6 April 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority has published its Approach Document – setting out enforcement priorities for the next 12 months and what businesses can expect following the widespread reforms to the UK consumer law regime.
Following the enactment of the Digital Markets, Competition & Consumer Act (DMCCA) in May 2024, the new UK digital markets competition regime and changes to the UK competition regime entered into force on 1 January 2025. This landmark legislation brings about significant changes to the UK antitrust regime including giving the Competition & Markets Authority the ability to regulate the technology sector, increased jurisdiction to review mergers, and stronger antitrust investigation powers.
The Home Office published their long-awaited guidance on the new failure to prevent fraud offence on 6 November 2024. The FTPF Offence, introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, allows for large organizations to be held criminally liable where their employees, agents, subsidiaries, or other “associated persons” commit a base fraud offence intending to benefit the organization or its clients, and it is determined the organization failed to implement “reasonable fraud prevention procedures”. All large, incorporated bodies and partnerships are in scope of the FTPF Offence, and it applies both to UK-based organizations and organizations based abroad with a UK nexus. The Government also announced that the FTPF Offence will come into force on 1 September 2025.
Further to the Employment Rights Bill that was published on 10 October 2024, the government has launched a consultation on strengthening statutory sick pay. The consultation seeks views on the amount of statutory sick pay that employees earning less than the current eligibility threshold should receive as part of the amendments to the Employment Rights Bill.
In brief The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) introduces a new requirement for employers to prevent third party harassment…
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employee was precluded from bringing disability discrimination claims against his employer as they had been validly waived under a prior settlement agreement. The decision confirms the Court of Session’s decision in Bathgate v. Technip Singapore PTE Ltd that unknown future claims can be validly waived under a settlement agreement although the drafting will need to be absolutely clear in this respect.
After a period of slowdown due to increased interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty, the second half of 2024 is poised for a strong resurgence in M&A activities. Staying up to date on the latest market trends and legal developments is critical. In this article, our Baker McKenzie lawyers share guidance on these anticipated regulatory challenges and their impact on M&A transactions, and provide direction for transaction parties on how to navigate such challenges successfully
The UK Government passed the long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (“Act”) on 24 May 2024. Some provisions of the Act take effect immediately (for example, new controls over foreign ownership of newspapers), but most provisions will enter into force in Autumn this year following the conclusion of a public consultation on important legislative guidance. The Act introduces radical new digital sector regulation – akin to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act – in addition to expanding the UK Competition & Markets Authority’s consumer protection powers and introducing significant reform of the UK competition regime.
The recruitment process stands as a critical juncture in shaping the workforce of any organization. As organizations scale, the influx of job applications creates a complex balancing act. In an article, Morven Ross explores the risks to organizations of disability discrimination in the recruitment process and the correct management of AI in this context.
The employment tribunal ruled that a Christian actor was not discriminated against because of religion or belief when she was dismissed from the role of a lesbian character and her agency terminated her contract following a social media storm after an old Facebook post was discovered saying that she believed homosexuality to be a sin.