Once hailed as “one of the most innovative developments” in the home loan market and “the bedrock of financial planning for millions”, the Shared Appreciation Mortgage which was offered to consumers by the Bank of Scotland (now part of the Lloyds Banking Group) and Barclays Bank in the 90s, soon revealed itself as a grossly unfair product with bitter consequences [...]
Billed by the Banks in the late 90s as one of the best and most generous retirement mortgages on the market, SAMs offered customers the opportunity to release up to 25% of the value of their property. The mortgages have, however, had the effect of trapping clients in their own homes. In addition to the adverse practical impact of the [...]
Since April 2016 companies in the UK have had to identify their owners and controllers. Those details have formed part of a publicly-available register held by Companies House. Ownership registers such as this have been introduced internationally in recent years. This is as part of a move towards increasing corporate transparency to combat money laundering, the financing of terrorism and tax evasion. The Court of Justice [...]
The UK data reform Bill was postponed upon the appointment of Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister. Now, it appears that Bill is on hold. The new Secretary of State for DCMS, Michelle Donelan appears to want to take data reform in a new direction. Reform of the data reform, if you like. She has promised "the design of a tailored, business-friendly British system of [...]
This week there is a second reading of the proposed Carer’s Leave Bill 2022-2023 in the House of Commons. The second reading is only the second stage of a Bill being considered in the House of Commons, before it can then proceed to be considered by the House of Lords. If this Bill is introduced the current proposal would grant [...]
Like many businesses, Starbucks closed its outlets in Russia. Now, a new chain owned by Russian rapper Timati and restaurateur Anton Pinsky is taking over the outlets. It has appointed new suppliers but much seems familiar. The new chain has dropped the "bucks" from the name. It has also adjusted the logo to show a woman wearing traditional Russian headgear. Pinsky said, [...]
IQE has filed a lawsuit against Tower for misappropriating its trade secrets. There are not many details in the public domain yet and reading anything in the general media can lead to confusion as journalists often think all words describing intellectual property rights are interchangeable! What we know is that IQE, one of the UK’s largest chip manufacturers, has filed [...]
The first known arbitration decision following the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 has been released, under which the tenant failed to obtain relief from rent arrears in respect of its registered office. Facts Signet Trading Ltd, the world’s largest specialist jeweller which operates around 300 retail stores and trades as H Samuel and Ernest Jones, sought relief from its rent [...]
Apple may be forced to adopt a standardised charger. In April 2022, the EU's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee voted 43-2 to adopt legislation requiring manufacturers to adopt USB-C for device charging. Apple has resisted calls to follow the industry and adopt a unified charging port on its devices. This is the case even though it adopted USB-C on its own laptops [...]
Mariah Carey released “All I want for Christmas is You” in 1994. Now, 28 years later songwriter Andy Stone has filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement. Unless you have been on a desert island all this time, you will recognise this song as it gets (over-) played every year at Christmas time. That's assuming the BBC didn't pack you off there [...]
