This Practice Note provides a brief summary of the retail operating landscape and highlights some of the key legal and practical issues facing office-holders appointed over a retail business. It also reviews some considerations for different restructuring options, including ‘light touch’ administrations, company voluntary arrangements, and restructuring plans under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006. In this Practice Note, the assumption is made that any meaningful retail insolvency will occur through an administration process. A liquidation will essentially result in a close down, with limited or no trading activity, although some of the points below will nonetheless be relevant to a liquidation and so should be considered when deliberating appropriate strategies. Overview of the retail insolvency landscape Analysis of Companies House accounts, conducted by FRP in December 2024, showed more than 13,000 retail businesses across the UK showing signs of financial distress. This reflects what has been a period of challenging operating conditions for retailers, exacerbated by, but long preceding, the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Recent years have seen

We have assumed that the clause in question is included in a business to business contract. You may find the following materials useful: • Practice Note: Force majeure—consequences and contract discharge which has been updated to reflect the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The section ‘Force majeure clauses—interpretation’ considers how definitions of force majeure are interpreted by the courts • Q&As:

ARCHIVED: This Precedent has been archived and is not maintained. CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19): Many arbitral organisations have responded to the coronavirus pandemic with practical guidance and/or changes to their usual procedures and ways of working. Registrar Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre 38/F, 2 Exchange Square 8 Connaught Place HKSAR China [Fax: +852 2524 2171] [Email: arbitration@hkiac.org] [date] Dear

The variety of conceivable contracts made by schools for school trips, in addition to the range of such trips, means that it is not possible to give a specific answer to this question. School trips include relatively simple arrangements for a trip to a local museum, day trips on a hired coach to a castle 100km away and more complex contracts associated with a week-long ski trip to a resort abroad. The contractual arrangements involved in these trips will be different depending on the nature of the trip. As a general matter, where a legal person contracts with a supplier of goods or services, it is not acting as a consumer. The definition of ‘consumer’ in section 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is ‘an individual acting for purposes that

Law360: A large portion of the highest level of funding surpluses recorded by pension plans in 2023 was caused by a decline in life expectancy in Britain, a consultancy said on 3 June 2024, as the sector continues to wrestle with the uncertain impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Law360, London: The owner of popular high-street pizzeria Franco Manca has agreed to settle its dispute with QIC Europe Ltd over losses the restaurant chain claimed to have suffered after it temporarily closed sites at the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Although VAT is a tax that is ultimately borne by the final consumer, the responsibility for paying VAT to HMRC lies with VAT registered suppliers of goods and services. For more details, see below: How is VAT collected? This Practice Note provides an introduction to the mechanics businesses must use when paying VAT to HMRC. This Practice Note includes reference to EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EC. The UK ceased to be an EU Member State on 31 January 2020. On this date, the UK entered an implementation period (IP), during which it continued to be treated as a Member State for many purposes, and remained bound by EU law. The IP ended at 11 pm on 31 December 2020. On that date, a body of EU-derived rights and legislation, known as retained EU law (REUL), was converted into domestic UK law. For more on REUL and tax, see Practice Note: Retained EU law and tax. On 1 January 2024, REUL that remained in force after the end of 2023 was recategorised as ‘assimilated law’.

Manufacturers of medicinal products must comply with certain minimum standards in their production processes. These minimum standards are known as good manufacturing practice (GMP). GMP requires that medicines are of consistent high quality, are appropriate for their intended use and meet the requirements of the marketing authorisation (MA) or clinical trial authorisation (CTA). The principles of GMP are applicable to the manufacture of both human medicinal products and veterinary medicinal products, as well as the active substances used in medicinal products and investigational medicinal products (IMPs) (ie medicines used in clinical trials). This Practice Note explores the legislation and guidelines that govern the manufacturing of medicinal products for human use, active substances and IMPs in the EU and in the UK. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic significantly impacted the regulation of the manufacturing of medicinal products which falls outside the scope of this Practice Note. The extraordinary regulatory flexibilities for medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic addressed supply challenges and have now been phased out while lessons from the pandemic have driven proposals for

Law360, London: An insurer has denied having to cover £4m in losses run up by the operator of the Dirty Martini cocktail bar chain during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, saying that the business interruption policy covers only the first national lockdown.

The Insolvency Service has jailed director Aleksander Staskiewicz, 35, from Southampton, for eight months for offences contrary to the Fraud Act 2006 and the Companies Act 2006. In May 2020, Staskiewicz overstated his company's turnover to obtain a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan (BBL) designed to support businesses through the pandemic.

Law360: An Italian reinsurer has lost its challenge against French insurer Covéa Insurance Plc's coronavirus business interruption (BI) claim, with a London appellate court on 30 September 2024 upholding findings that the pandemic met the definition of 'catastrophe' used in the policy.

Law360, London: The chancellor said on 3 December 2024 that Tom Hayhoe, a health service and regulatory veteran, has been appointed as the coronavirus (COVID-19) corruption commissioner to claw back money wasted in pandemic-era fraud with a potential cost of up to £7.3bn.