Ireland

Recent Articles

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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

  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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  07/05/2025

  International

  Cyber Space: Global insights on cyber and data risk for insurers

  Issue 2, May 2025. How does the cost of cyber incidents vary across the globe?  A key pillar of CMS’ Cyber Space series is to compare and contrast the impact of cyber incidents in different international jurisdictions.In this respect, with assistance from colleagues in Brazil and Singapore, CMS UK have collaborated with the CMS’ network of international offices and affiliate law firms to consider the comparative costs of cyber incidents. We did so by focussing on the following aspects - Legal fees (average hourly rate in USD or ease), notification costs (in USD), chance of...

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  07/05/2025

  Europe

  EU ESG Ratings Regulation – What do I need to do if I’m not a ratings provider?

  The EU ESG Ratings Regulation (“ESGRR”) entered into force on 2 January 2025 and will start applying from 2 July 2026.The ESGRR is primarily aimed at firms that aim to explicitly position themselves as an ESG ratings provider.However, the broad scope of the ESGRR will impact other firms who may not think of themselves as an ESG ratings provider. It is therefore a key compliance issue for other types of firms (both EU and non-EU) to consider.Executive SummaryEven where a firm is not intending to operate as an ESG ratings provider, it will need to carefully consider whether ESG related...

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  07/05/2025

  Europe

  European Commission publishes Call for Evidence on SFDR revision

  On 2 May 2025, the European Commission (“EC”) published its call for evidence to help form an impact assessment on the revision of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”).The Call for Evidence, which follows the Platform on Sustainable Finance’s briefing note outlining its proposal for a new categorisation system under the SFDR (which you can read more about here), invites stakeholders to submit general feedback.The Call for Evidence states that due to a lack of legal clarity on key concepts, the limited relevance of certain disclosure requirements,...

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  06/05/2025

  Europe

  ESMA Consultation Paper on RTS under the ESG Ratings Regulation

  On 2 May 2025, the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) published a Consultation Paper on regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) under the ESG Ratings Regulation (“ESGRR”).It contains draft RTS on:applications for authorisation and recognition of ESG ratings providers (“Authorisation and Recognition RTS”);measures and safeguards that should be put in place to mitigate conflicts of interest in separating business and activities other than the provision of ESG ratings (“Separation of Business RTS”); andinformation to be disclosed...

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