<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

The law on workplace sexual harassment is changing. Below, we summarise what you need to know, and how to prepare for the changes.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

Read and listen to "What’s Happening in Pensions", our regular news briefing covering topical pensions law developments.

Many commercial contracts contain blanket exclusions of loss of profits – and sometimes the parties also agree that such clauses will be mutual (so both supplier and customer benefit from the same exclusion). But a recent dispute between EE and Virgin Mobile highlights the significant impact such provisions can have on a party's remedies for breach – especially where the clause is reciprocal. The judgment also contains some important lessons about exclusivity obligations.

The UK CMA has now (12 October) published its keenly awaited Green Agreements Guidance, explaining how collaborations between competitors to promote environmental sustainability will be treated under domestic competition laws prohibiting anticompetitive agreements. 

There's a new way for UK businesses to transfer personal data compliantly to the US. A newly established data bridge, an extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF) adopted in July 2023, enables organisations in the UK to transfer personal data to organisations in the US that have certified to the DPF, without putting in place further safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses (SCCs), or carrying out a transfer risk assessment.

In our new Talking. Secondaries. series, we will seek to demystify the secondaries and synthetic secondaries markets and provide insights into the variety of tools available to GPs when looking to provide liquidity to their limited partners and their portfolios.

A recent decision by Constable J of the High Court in a negligence claim has examined the scope of a valuer's duty of care. Applying the scope of duty test handed down by the Supreme Court in MBS v Grant Thornton UK LLP, Constable J has ruled that the purpose of the Defendant's valuation in this case, although critically important, was not to provide the only "green light" needed for a loan transaction to proceed.

In its judgment of 26 July 2023[1], the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("CAT") considered the applicability of the European Court of Justice's ("CJEU") decision on limitation in Volvo AB and DAF Trucks NV v RM[2] ("The Volvo Decision") to the claims brought in both the Umbrella Interchange Fee Litigation and the Merricks Collective Proceedings. 

As many companies take the first steps towards understanding the impact of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") on their organisations, a series of seemingly impactful changes to the regime, and corresponding alarming headlines, have emerged. However, while these changes and headlines might make businesses worry that they will need to pivot their plans and processes as a reaction, in practice, many of those currently preparing for CSRD reporting may find that recent developments do not move the dial significantly and they may well still be on the right path towards CSRD compliance.

The EU continues to pursue a rapid and ambitious legislative programme around environmental regulation. Its regulations in the product space have in many respects and for many years been viewed by multinational manufacturers as the "gold standard" and therefore the de facto rules to which all products destined for international sales must adhere.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

As of 30 June 2023, there are only 184 properties registered as "commonhold" within England and Wales, which is less than 0.01 % of the total number of properties in the same area. This evidences the extent to which the current form of commonhold ownership in the UK is unsuccessful.

Data is often described as AI's "lifeblood" but there's widespread concern about personal data being unlawfully exploited or processed using AI tools. While the future approach to regulation of AI is still being heavily debated, existing data protection legislation, such as the GDPR and its UK equivalent, is likely to play an influential role – not least because regulators already have powers which they can use to oversee the new technology.

On 2 October 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a trends, risks and vulnerabilities (TRV) risk analysis report on ESG names and claims in the EU fund industry (the report). While undoubtedly of interest, it should be noted that this is not the reply to ESMA's 2022 fund names consultation – we are still waiting for that (see below for details).

The UK's merger control regime is one of very few voluntary and non-suspensory regimes in the world. This means that, despite jurisdictional thresholds being met, parties to transactions do not need to notify their transactions to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in advance and may complete without clearance.

On 28 September 2023, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published their second annual report (Report) on the extent of voluntary disclosures of principal adverse impacts (PAIs) under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Based on feedback from national competent authorities (NCAs), the ESAs made some preliminary recommendations to the European Commission on best practices, on entity-level statements and, in the context of the European Commission's comprehensive assessment of SFDR,  asked the Commission to consider wider points that would require changes to SFDR itself. This is separate from the Commission's Targeted Consultation and Public Consultation on SFDR – see our briefing.

BlueCrest – all about salaried members – our briefing is here.

As Autumn kicks in, we look at 6 real estate sub-sectors and consider recent trends in law and practice.