The recent case of the British Horseracing Board v William Hill is the first substantive judicial pronouncement on the scope of the database right. The initial High Court decision by Mr Justice Laddie was appealed to the Court of Appeal, who have in turn taken the somewhat unusual step of referring the case to the … Read more
The Press Complaints Commission’s rejection of a complaint by the parents of a surviving Siamese twin is likely to drive privacy complainants away from the PCC and towards the court, since it has found against the complainant on seemingly technical grounds. The complaint was by the Maltese parents of the surviving Siamese twin who was … Read more
EU Commissioners have endorsed a proposal for an EU-wide law designed to remove national restrictions on sales promotions and promote cross-border trade of goods and services. At present, sales promotions are regulated very differently across member states and the divergences between national regulations have inhibited cross-border sales promotions. Policy makers believe that an EU-wide Regulation … Read more
The European Commission last week issued a consultation document proposing root and branch harmonisation of consumer law within the EU, including various possible routes towards harmonising the current mishmash of advertising and marketing laws. In a related proposal the Commission has also set out specific plans to harmonise sales promotion law across the EU. This … Read more
For the politicians who run sports governing bodies, the classic way of maintaining control is to widen the membership as far as possible and make sure that each member has one vote. Having achieved a “democratic” structure, the next step is to centralise the organisation of tournaments and their commercial exploitation, developing, if possible, a … Read more
A proposed European directive regulating the distance marketing of consumer financial services came one step closer to fruition last week when political agreement was reached on common rules to be applied. Distance marketing of other goods and services is already regulated under the Distance Selling Directive. The proposed regulations cover “distance contracts” where the supplier … Read more
