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Commercial News

14 May 2012

Competition and pensions teams shortlisted for industry excellence

Two nationally-renowned teams at Burges Salmon are celebrating being shortlisted in two separate high profile UK award schemes this month.

11 April 2012

Burges Salmon advises NDA on contract expected to save taxpayers in excess of £1 billion

Burges Salmon has advised the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on its appointment of Babcock Dounreay Partnership Limited as the parent body organisation for its former research and development site at Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland.

04 April 2012

Burges Salmon seals growth ambitions with seven new partner promotions

Leading UK law firm Burges Salmon has made up seven new partners from within the firm, as it continues to go from strength to strength in both UK and international markets.

23 January 2012

Burges Salmon advises National Composites Centre on new funding and collaboration arrangement

Burges Salmon has advised the National Composites Centre on its membership of, and funding from, the High-Value Manufacturing Technology and Innovation Centre (HVMTIC).

13 January 2012

Myth Buster

Tim Heywood, Director (Public Sector & Procurement) at Burges Salmon, addresses some of the myths surrounding public sector procurement in his article ‘Myth Buster’ featured in Supply Management.

13 January 2012

Call for Evidence on feasibility of a new Digital Copyright Exchange

In November 2011, Richard Hooper was appointed to lead an independent feasibility study into the possible introduction of a Digital Copyright Exchange ("DCE"), and on 4th January he issued a Call for Evidence as part of that study.

11 January 2012

Competition Team secures quality EU hire

Competition law specialist, Matthew O’Regan, joins Burges Salmon as a partner this month from the Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, bringing with him extensive expertise of all aspects of UK, EU and international competition law.

04 January 2012

Consumer Rights Directive

Following 4 years of discussion and negotiation between Member States, the Consumer Rights Directive was finally adopted by the EU Council of Ministers in October 2011. It covers business to consumer sales of both goods and services and aims to simplify and harmonise existing consumer laws.

14 December 2011

OFT tobacco decision quashed on appeal

The competition team at Burges Salmon has supported the Co-operative Group in a successful appeal against the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

01 December 2011

Burges Salmon advises on transfer of historic nuclear facility

Burges Salmon has advised the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on its agreement to transfer an NDA-owned site at Capenhurst in Cheshire to URENCO, a major uranium enrichment supplier which currently occupies an adjacent nuclear-licensed site.

30 November 2011

The effects of competition law on farming businesses

Any farming business needs to be aware of the effects of competition law. Guidance issued by the Office of Fair Trading in November 2011 clarifies the law for farming businesses.

11 November 2011

Sports & media lateral hire for Burges Salmon litigation team

Accomplished commercial litigator Mark Gay joins leading UK law firm Burges Salmon as a partner, bringing with him broad High Court and arbitration experience, including a specialism in media and sport.

27 September 2011

Digitisation and making available orphan and out-of-commerce works

The European Commission is working to further the Digital Agenda and on 24 May put forward a proposal for a Directive on orphan works as the first part of a two-pronged approach to further the development of digital libraries in Europe. 

12 August 2011

Burges Salmon helps reduce impact of OFT ruling for dairy client

Burges Salmon's competition team has advised major dairy processor The Cheese Company throughout the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) long-running investigation into the retail pricing of dairy products.

04 August 2011

Government to propose new copyright exceptions

In its response to the Hargreaves Review of the UK intellectual property regime, the Government has indicated that it will make proposals for broadening the exceptions to copyright, including the introduction of new exceptions for limited private copying and parody.

25 July 2011

L'Oréal v eBay: the ECJ's Judgment

Providers of online marketplaces may lose the protection of the hosting defence by offering assistance to their users.

21 June 2011

Amendment to the Public Contracts Regulations 2006

The Bribery Act 2010 will come fully into force on 1 July 2011. Along with the Commencement Order, the Secretary of State has made the Bribery Act 2010 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2011.

26 May 2011

New Privacy Regulations for Electronic Communications

The much discussed Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 came in to force today (26 May 2011) implementing a 2009 EC Directive. They potentially impact all organisations who use cookies on their website.

18 May 2011

21st Century Copyright: Report calls for wide-ranging reform

The Hargreaves report, commissioned by David Cameron in November 2010 with the aim of developing proposals for making the UK's intellectual property framework more supportive of entrepreneurism, growth and innovation, was published 18 May 2011.

31 March 2011

Bribery Act to come into force on 1 July 2011

Following delays due to heavy criticism from British business, the Ministry of Justice has published Guidance on the "adequate procedures" that all commercial organisations will need to put in place in order to protect themselves against committing the controversial "corporate offence" under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010.

18 March 2011

Burges Salmon Appoints Four New Partners From Within

Top 50 UK law firm Burges Salmon has appointed four new partners from a range of practice areas across the firm. These appointments will bring the total number of partners to 69. They take effect from 1 May, 2011.

01 February 2011

The Bribery Act 2010 - implementation delayed

The government has announced that the controversial Bribery Act 2010 will not now be implemented in April, as originally planned.  The government declined to provide a revised implementation date, simply saying that the Act will come into force three months after the Ministry of Justice's guidance on the "adequate procedures" defence has been published. While this guidance was due to be published early this year, it is now not clear when this will happen.

07 December 2010

Burges Salmon advises Reliance on UK Border Agency contract win

Burges Salmon advised Reliance Secure Task Management Limited on the contract awarded to it by the United Kingdom Border Agency to provide escorting services of detainees and the associated transport services.

23 November 2010

Update on legal professional privilege

Legal professional privilege is a hot topic in the legal press following the recent decisions in Akzo Nobel and in Prudential v HMRC.  The cases looked at the extent to which the advice of in-house counsel is protected and whether advice given by professionals other than lawyers was legally privileged.

04 November 2010

Burges Salmon advises Eurostar in high court victory

Burges Salmon acted for Eurostar in the case brought against it by ALSTOM Transport.

01 October 2010

New joint venture at UK's largest bulk butter and powder processor

Burges Salmon acted for Milk Link Limited and Westbury Dairies Limited in relation to creation of a new tripartite joint venture to operate the UK's largest bulk butter and milk powder processing plant. 

28 July 2010

Tough Licensing Overhaul Unveiled

In its new role as custodian of licensing, the Home Office today launched a consultation containing proposals to shake up the licensing regime through the Police Reform and Social Responsibilty Bill.

14 July 2010

Are your land agreements anti-competitive?

Restrictive covenants affecting real property must comply fully with UK competition law from 6th April 2011. This includes covenants in existing documents as well as those made after that date, whether contained in leases, transfers or other property deeds and agreements. Those which do not comply will be void and may give rise to other penalties for the parties after next April.

28 April 2010

Burges Salmon sponsors high profile rail industry event

The RAIL 100 Breakfast Club is a prominent business networking and social club for the rail industry’s top managers which meets four times a year in Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. 

30 March 2010

Burges Salmon supports NDA as nuclear site future is secured

Successful conclusion to the disposal of the nuclear fuel business at Springfields to Westinghouse Electric

29 January 2010

BSkyB win case against EDS

One of the longest-running and most complicated disputes in the technology sector has finally come to an end, with the Technology and Construction Court finding EDS guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation. BSkyB expects that EDS will be ordered to pay them damages of around £200 million.

16 October 2009

Debt Buybacks: HMRC to introduce anti-avoidance measures

HMRC has announced that anti-avoidance legislation will be included in the next Financial Bill, but which will have retrospective effect from 15 October 2009, and which affects debt buybacks.

10 September 2009

Avon Fire Authority appointment

We have been appointed to the legal panel for Avon Fire Authority, our sixth client in the ‘blue light’ sector.

19 June 2009

Appointed to London Development Agency Panel

We have been selected to work with the London Development Agency.

24 March 2009

Responding to the downturn: Decommissioning or mothballing manufacturing plant

Our Environment Team produced this webcast which looks at decommissioning and mothballing manufacturing plant.

19 March 2009

Companies in administration

David Hall, who leads our Finance Litigation Practice, spoke to AccountancyAge  about happens when companies go into administration, focusing on the supply chain and new insolvency rules. You can watch the videos here.

30 January 2009

Competition Commission accepts failing firm defence to clear stilton merger

The Competition Commission has cleared the acquisition by Long Clawson Dairy Limited of the Stilton and speciality cheese business of Dairy Crest plc after accepting the failing firm defence applied. 

05 August 2008

Advising The Carbon Trust

We advised The Carbon Trust on the recently launched Carbon Trust Standard.