STOP PRESS: On 16 March 2026, Companies House issued a statement that on Friday 13 March, Companies House was made aware of a security issue which meant that a logged-in user of the WebFiling service could potentially access and change some elements of another company’s details without their consent after performing a specific set of actions. Companies House have stated that no existing filed documents, such as accounts or confirmation statements could have been altered. However, there is a risk that certain personal details could have been accessed and that unauthorised filings could have been made. Companies House has recommended that companies check their registered details and filing history. Note that the WebFiling service is also used by limited liability partnerships who wish to file digitally. Lenders may want borrowers who are limited liability partnerships to check their registered details and filing history and to confirm that everything is in order. This Practice Note considers the acts typically carried out by limited liability partnerships

This Practice Note provides a toolkit for employers and advisers for the management of long-term ill health or chronic sickness absence. Dealing with an employee who is off sick for several long periods, or for one long, continuous period is complex and requires a particularly careful procedure, which must be well documented by the employer. Particular care will be required to minimise the risk of disability discrimination claims if the employee has a long-term condition meeting the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010)—see Practice Note: Disability. The existence of any permanent health insurance (PHI) scheme or a pension scheme providing for ill-health retirement will be relevant. Achieving a fair dismissal for long-term ill health can take some time. The process must also be undertaken against the background of the legislative and case law requirements for fair dismissals relating to capability—see Practice Note: Reason for dismissal—capability. This Practice Note assumes there is no issue with employment status and that the employee is truly an employee—see Practice Notes: Employee status and Worker

Lookalike products and dupes are, by their nature, difficult for brand owners to deal with. They are intended to mimic or call to mind a well-known or popular product but often without using any obvious branding elements for which the brand owners may have registered rights. For instance, they may entirely replicate the colour, look and feel of the packaging of a well-known product but may use a different trade mark in order to escape liability. The reason why lookalike products are so difficult to enforce against is that, under UK law, there is no unified, specific, IP right designed to tackle them. Rather, brand owners typically need to rely on a patchwork of legal rights such as copyright, passing off and trade mark and design infringement to establish the elements of their claim against a ‘copycat’ product. Manufacturers and designers of lookalikes and dupes are also generally sophisticated. They are careful to avoid obvious trade marked brand names, instead tending to copy more common or generic elements such

This Practice Note considers how an employer should deal with an employee whom they suspect of malingering. The term 'malingerer' is used in this Practice Note to refer to an employee who is absent and gives illness or injury as the reason for absence, but the employer: • does not believe the employee's explanation for the absence • discovers later that the employee was not, in fact, ill or injured but was, for example, on holiday, and/or • does not consider that the illness is serious enough to justify absence from work The period(s) of absence involved may be entire weeks (as in the case of an employee taking sick leave to go on holiday) or a series of short-term, often one-day, absences. It is important to identify whether the situation is: • one where the employer does not believe the employee or thinks they are being lazy (a malingerer), where the process considered in this Practice Note is appropriate, or • one where the employer believes the absence is genuine but needs to address it for business

The need for parking is commonplace and consequently land for parking can attract significant value either by way of: • sale • lease or licence, and • (most commonly) the grant of rights to park Legal status of parking rights Historically, the legal status of rights to park has been uncertain. For any right over land to amount to an easement it must comprise certain essential characteristics. One of these characteristics is that the right in question must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant of easement. This requirement is difficult to reconcile with the ‘ouster principle’. The principle proposes that a right cannot be an easement if it is so extensive as to exclude the servient owner from using his land by effectively ‘ousting’ him from his property altogether. The relevant case-law has considered where the dividing line lies between a right which constitutes an easement and a right which excludes the servient owner from his land to such an extent that it is incapable of being the subject matter of

What is an insistent client? The term ‘insistent client’ is commonly used to describe an individual who has received advice (ie a personal recommendation) and chooses to do something different than what was recommended. For a while, there had been no settled definition of ‘insistent clients’, thereby creating a risk that the term could be used inconsistently. On 3 January 2018, through the Conduct of Business Sourcebook (Insistent Clients) Instrument 2017, FCA 2017/66, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) inserted a definition of ‘insistent client’ in COBS 9.5A. Under this definition, an insistent client is a client who: • receives a personal recommendation from a FCA-regulated firm • decides to enter into a transaction which is different from that recommended by the firm in the personal recommendation, and • wishes the firm to facilitate that transaction The FCA’s definition therefore focuses on insistent client from the perspective of the adviser who is asked to facilitate the very transaction they have advised against. This area has become particularly relevant to pensions since

This Practice Note sets out practical steps for dealing with persistent, intermittent, short-term absences, or repeated sickness absences or sick days. It considers issues to be addressed at the outset, including whether there is a reliable record of absence, whether the absence is genuine, underlying long-term health issues, disability and the duty to make reasonable adjustments, the employer’s absence/sickness policy, obtaining medical evidence, data protection issues under Assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/679, UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and commercial considerations. It also considers the relevance of the Acas Code of Practice and related guidance, and identifies steps to take once a problem is identified, including obtaining the employee’s explanation for each absence, implementing a series of warnings, acknowledging improvement, adopting a flexible strategy for tackling the problem, and dealing with medical reports. It lists factors for an employer to weigh up where dismissal is a possibility and provides guidance on notice, dismissal procedure and the reason for dismissal in unfair dismissal claims. Many employers find dealing with this type of absence particularly

This Practice Note examines the employment law and practical issues an employer will need to consider when dealing with pregnancy-related sickness. It looks at the initial considerations in relation to pregnancy-related sickness or illness, detriment or dismissal on grounds of pregnancy, medical reports under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 (AMRA 1988), dealing with persistent, short-term absence, long-term absence and malingers, time off work for antenatal appointments, applying the employer’s usual sickness policy and procedure in case of pregnancy-related sickness, the entitlement to sick pay, pregnancy-related illness triggering the start of maternity leave, risk assessments and the duty to offer suitable alternative work, and suspension on maternity grounds. An employee who is pregnant may take time off sick, either due to a pregnancy-related sickness or due to illness unconnected to the pregnancy. As a separate issue, an employer is under various duties as regards protection of the health of the woman and her baby if risks to her health from the workplace are identified by a risk assessment—these

This Practice Note sets out the considerations for a buyer and seller where a freehold or leasehold property is being sold subject to occupational leases and there are arrears of rent under those leases. It primarily covers commercial property matters, but it also touches on residential considerations. It does not deal with arrears in the context of a headlease, see instead: Due diligence—head lease rent arrears—checklist. For practical guidance and drafting tips for buyers relating to typical arrears clauses, see Practice Note: Buyer’s contract negotiation guide—arrears. When purchasing a property which is subject to leases, it is essential to establish if there will (or may) be arrears of rent under those leases as at the date of completion. If so, the parties must agree: • who takes the risk of non-payment of the arrears, and • who has responsibility for trying to collect them Risk of non-payment On the completion date, the rent already received by the seller for the quarter in which the day of completion

This Practice Note is aimed primarily at companies wishing to engage influencers for social marketing campaigns and advertising activities in Austria. It covers: • Labelling requirements—the legal framework • The requirements of ‘remuneration’ and ‘lack of clarity of promotional purposes’ • How to label promotional content correctly • Requirements of the Audiovisual Media Services Act • Sanctions and risks • Written agreements with influencers The success of a campaign depends on the quality and price of its goods and services, and, moreover, on their promotion on the market. Attractive advertising is therefore the key to success. To reach a wide audience and different targeting groups, companies not only rely on self-marketing but also often use influencers for their testimonials. This has numerous advantages: customers of different ages and with different background, mindsets and individual needs can be addressed directly by an authentic role model with a large number of followers at relatively manageable costs. Through a clever combination of objective reporting

This Practice Note examines the current legal framework for social media influencers (influencers) in Belgium. As in most other countries, influencer marketing in Belgium continues to be a widespread phenomenon, increasing in a variety of channels and being used both for commercial and political purposes. In 2025 research on the perception by Belgians of branding through social media and influencer marketing, 83.9% of 16–24-year-olds indicated that they follow an influencer on social media. Of those, 34% admitted being led by an influencer for a recent purchase, and 38% indicated that they started following a brand due to an influencer. The numbers have all increased when compared with the previous study conducted in 2023. It is thus stating the obvious to say that influencer marketing creates opportunities for brands and advertising companies, and enables them to reach their target audiences more effectively. Influencer marketing comes in a variety of forms, some more subtle than others, such as advertisements, sponsored content, commercial breaks within videos, and

This Practice Note is aimed primarily at brands wishing to engage with social media influencers (or other talent) for particular social marketing campaigns and advertising promotions in Canada. Applicable regulations, codes and guidelines In Canada, the influencer-brand relationship is primarily governed by the federal Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-3, and related regulatory and industry guidelines. The Competition Act broadly prohibits representations that are false or misleading in a material respect. The misleading advertising provisions apply to influencer marketing just as they do to any other form of marketing, and apply to representations made by influencers to the public. Under the Competition Act, the federal Competition Bureau regulates influencer marketing, including its determination of what constitutes a ‘material connection’ between an influencer and a brand and the corresponding disclosure requirements, which are discussed in detail below. The Competition Bureau is empowered to pursue administrative remedies in relation to misleading advertising as a civil offence, or to prosecute misleading advertising where misrepresentations are made knowingly or recklessly