Freshfields

This Practice Note looks specifically at the two key criminal offences introduced by the Pension Schemes Act 2021 which came into force on 1 October 2021, namely ‘avoidance of employer debt’ and ‘risking accrued scheme benefits’, including who they apply to, what types of activity will be caught, when they can be prosecuted, and what constitutes a reasonable excuse, as well as their impact on the sponsoring employers and trustees of defined benefit pension schemes.

This Practice Note sets out what investment-grade, high yield and crossover bonds are and the differences between them.

This Practice Note provides guidance on the UK protection of databases and database rights. It examines what a database is, copyright in databases and the sui generis database right. The Practice Note also covers competition issues that may arise from the exercising of rights that protect databases and deals with other ways of protecting databases such as using the law of confidential information, database application software, and provides practical tips for protecting databases.

This Market Standards Trend Report was published in 2020 and is not maintained. It looks at trends in UK public M&A deals in 2019.

This Market Standards Trend Report was published in 2021 and is not maintained. It looks at trends in UK public M&A deals in 2020.

This Market Standards Trend Report was published in 2020 and is not maintained. It looks at trends in UK public M&A deals in the first half of 2020.

This Practice Note considers the application of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty to wholesale firms. It considers the scoping exercise for wholesale firms, including relevant exclusions, the meaning of material influence, and the proportional application of the Consumer Duty. For those activities of a wholesale firm which fall within the scope of the Consumer Duty, it sets out a number of key considerations in respect of each cross-cutting obligation and each of the four retail customer outcomes. Furthermore, it considers how the requirements of the Consumer Duty overlap with pre-existing regulatory rules applicable to the wholesale sector, in particular, the FCA’s Product Intervention and Product Governance Sourcebook (PROD) and UK retail disclosure requirements.