Commercial & General Business Issues

Recent Articles

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  14/05/2025

  Hungary

  Hungary to increase cent­ral­isa­tion of hospital procurements

  The Hungarian government recently published a draft legislation signalling a significant transformation in the organisation of health care supply chains by further centralising hospital procurements. This draft law amends Government Decree No. 43/1999 (III. 3.) on the detailed rules on financing health care services from the Health Insurance Fund and Government Decree No. 516/2020 (XI. 25.) on the tasks of the National Directorate General for Hospitals (Draft).The proposed changes in the Draft restructures the current model for supplying medical equipment to state health care institutions. A central...

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  13/05/2025

  International

  EU moves forward with Toy Safety Regulation

  The EU’s proposal for a Toy Safety Regulation is moving closer to formal adoption. In April 2025, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on a regulation that updates and strengthens safety requirements for toys sold in the EU market.The new regulation is expected to better protect children by banning harmful chemicals, introducing a Digital Product Passport, and increasing oversight of online toy sales.BackgroundIn July 2023, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation on the safety of toys, which will replace Directive 2009/48/EC, the...

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  12/05/2025

  England

  Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 - what the Labour gov­ern­ment’s im­ple­ment­a­tion means for UK universities

  Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, recently announced that some provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will come into force on 1 August this year. Originally introduced under the Conservative government in May 2021, the Act aims to strengthen existing free speech duties, create a culture of free speech within higher education institutions and introduce a greater degree of accountability for those institutions to comply with their obligations.What was initially proposed?The Act, in its original form, introduced several major reforms, including:a Free Speech...

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  12/05/2025

  EU, UK

  Data access and data sharing – navigating new rules in the UK and the EU

  Introduction Data is now recognised as a key economic and business asset for driving innovation, competitiveness, and growth.  In the UK and the EU, new laws and regulations that are intended to make more data available for use and foster data-driven economies and societies–at the same time balancing this with the rights and interests of data holders–have been or are in the process of being implemented.In this Law-Now article, we take a closer look at the data access and data sharing rights and obligations proposed in the Smart Data provisions of the Data (Use and Access)...

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  09/05/2025

  Slovakia

  Slovakia experiences blow back on 2023 high court decision on managing director remuneration

  Slovakia experiences blow back on 2023 high court decision on managing director remunerationEighteen months ago, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic rendered a decision (case No. 5Obdo/32/2022) regarding the remuneration for the performance of the office of the executive director in a limited liability company when no written agreement was made regarding the performance of this office. This ruling has had broader implications, not only for limited liability companies but also for joint-stock companies and limited partnerships, and the relationships between their governing bodies, such as executive...

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  09/05/2025

  United Kingdom

  PFAS in soils: con­sid­er­a­tions for landowners and developers

  PFAS are hardly out of the news at the moment and awareness of PFAS risks is growing. In the UK, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has launched an inquiry into whether enough is being done to address the risks of PFAS, which will include consideration of whether the current regulatory regime is fit for purpose.  A report for the Environment Agency has identified up to 10,000 “high risk” PFAS contaminated sites in England. In this article, we look at PFAS impacts in soils and the associated legal risks to landowners, developers and lenders and consider the practical steps...

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