EU Sales Law

Recent Articles

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  25.04.2023

  England and Wales

  Con­sumer reg­u­lat­or giv­en 10% fin­ing powers un­der new con­sumer law Bill

  10% fining powers confirmed in newly unveiled consumer law Bill:Highly-anticipated proposals for new consumer laws have today (25 April 2023) been published in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (the “Bill”).The Bill propels the UK’s consumer regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), from having no right to fine for consumer law breaches into having the most aggressive fining regime in any country we know, with penalty fines linked to a business’ annual global, rather than UK-specific, turnover.  The proposals show that the...

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  21.02.2023

  Europe

  Sun­rise peri­od of the Uni­fied Pat­ent Court to be­gin 1 March

  After the final version of the UPC Rules of Procedure had been adopted and the judges of the UPC had been selected and appointed, the start of the Sunrise Period, originally planned for 1 January 2023, was postponed to 1 March 2023.Reasons for the postponement of the start of the Sunrise PeriodAccording to an "Implementation Roadmap" published on 6 October 2022, the Sunrise Period was originally to start on 1 January 2023 and the UPCA was to enter into force on 1 April 2023. However, this timeline was changed again by a communication of 5 December 2022. According to the new timeline, the Sunrise...

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  15.02.2023

  England and Wales

  Hot con­sumer law top­ics for 2023

  As we ease ourselves into 2023, there has been a recent flurry of activity at UK and EU level in relation to consumer protection law matters. Here is our round-up of the “hot” consumer law topics which consumer-facing businesses should keep an eye on over the coming year, and which are likely to lead to direct enforcement action:1 - Two-tiered EU regime for online platforms and online search engines kicks off this monthThe first deadline under the new EU Digital Services Act (DSA) hits this week, on 17 February. By that date, all providers of online platforms and online search engines...

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  13.09.2022

  Europe

  UPC Rules of Pro­ced­ure go in­to force with judg­ments to be made pub­lic

  The entry into force of the Rules of Procedure is part of the final preparations for the United Patent Court (UPC), which is currently expected to start work in early 2023. After the bodies of the UPC were constituted in the course of the year, interviews were held with possible candidates for filling judges' posts and numerous other preparations were made. On 8 July 2022, the Administrative Committee of the UPC met and officially confirmed the locations of the Court of First Instance. The "table of fees", which determines the amount of court fees, was also adopted. Finally, the Administrative...

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  12.05.2022

  International

  10 key as­pects of the re­vised EU com­pet­i­tion law in the field of dis­tri­bu­tion (VBER/VGL)

  DE

  The new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and the new accompanying Vertical Guidelines (VGL) were published on 10 May 2022. The new VBER will enter into force on 1 June 2022 and apply for the next twelve years. The new VBER/VGL introduce several substantial changes which will modernise EU competition law in the field of distribution, provide greater flexibility and clarity on certain important issues, but the new VBER/VGL also stress the prohibition of certain business practices. Suppliers and buyers along the supply chain are well advised to check that their existing contracts comply...

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  11.05.2022

  Europe

  The Gen­er­al Court of the EU con­firms the leg­al­ity of the res­cue aid to TAR­OM

  FR

  On 4 May 2022, the General Court of the EU confirmed the legality of the Commission's decision approving rescue aid of 36.66 million EUR from Romania to the airline TAROM. It found that the aid was indeed aimed at avoiding the social difficulties that an interruption of TAROM's services would cause for the connectivity of Romanian regions. In its judgment, the Court of First Instance clarifies the examination of the compatibility of rescue and restructuring aid with the internal market, in particular with regard to the conditions of “contribution to an objective of common interest”...

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