On 19 May 2021, the UK’s national competition authority, the CMA, and its data protection authority, the ICO, published a joint statement on finding a balance between competition law and privacy law when approaching digital markets. The statement highlights the overlapping importance of protecting both personal data and competition in the digital markets, and more…
On May 6, Microsoft released its plan to support customers by enabling them to “process and store all their data in the EU”, which should be ready by the end of 2022. Microsoft seems to be reacting to the market’s needs following the Schrems II decision (see below). Microsoft is calling this plan the EU Data Boundary…
Following the Queen’s speech last week, the UK Government has published the Online Safety Bill (the “Bill”), draft legislation aimed at tackling a range of ‘online harms’. The Bill includes the imposition of a duty of care on tech players, such as social media platforms, under which they would be required to take down “illegal”…
On 5 February 2021, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the case of R (on the application of KBR, Inc) (Appellant) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Respondent) [2021] UKSC 2 (“KBR v SFO”). The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that section 2(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 (“CJA 1987”) does not…
On 30 April 2021, the European Commission announced that it has issued Apple with a Statement of Objections, setting out its preliminary view that it has distorted competition in the music streaming market and abused its dominant position for the distribution of music streaming apps through the Apple App Store. The announcement follows an investigation…
According to the Department for Transport, Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) technology could legally be defined as self-driving if: * they receive GB type approval; and * there is no evidence to challenge the vehicle’s ability to self-drive. ALKS is designed for a slow traffic motorway. ALKS allows a vehicle to drive itself in a…
The CAA has approved trial of beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone flights Local start-up sees.ai is the first UK company to obtain the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorisation for trialling a concept for a routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) command and control solution. The trial is part of a project to test the concept before making it available to…
The Space Industry Act 2018 created the high-level legal framework to enable commercial spaceflight and associated activities to be carried out from the UK. On Friday 5 March 2021 the government response to consultations on the space industry was published. The consultation sought views on the operability and effectiveness of the draft space industry regulations…
The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2021 (CPR) come into effect today, 6 April 2021. The 127th Practice Direction Update (PD) came into effect variously on 29 January 2021, 30 March 2021 and 6 April 2021. A summary of the main changes to the CPR and PD is outlined below. Overriding Objective and PD 1A CPR1.1 Overriding…
On 20 January 2021, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in the case of Phones 4U Limited v EE Limited [2021] EWCA Civ 116. It upheld the decision that, for the purposes of disclosure, the personal devices of the defendant’s employees and former employees containing relevant documents were under the defendant’s control. The court…
