A round-up of financial services developments.

Please read the following important terms and conditions before you buy anything on our website and check that they contain everything you want and nothing that you are not willing to agree to. Summary of some of your key rights: The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 say that up to 14 days after receiving your goods, in most cases, you can change your mind and get a full refund. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says goods must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. During the expected lifespan of your product you’re entitled to the following: • up to 30 days: if your goods are faulty, you can get a refund; • up to six months: if it can’t be repaired or replaced, then you’re entitled to a full refund in most cases; • up to six years: if the goods do not last a reasonable length of time, you may be entitled to some money back. This is a summary of some of your key rights. For detailed information from Citizens Advice please visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Construction analysis: The Technology and Construction Court (TCC) rejected technical challenges to an adjudicator's decision regarding payment under a construction contract. The court emphasised that payment provisions should be interpreted with business common sense, rejecting arguments about invalid interim valuation dates and attempted retrospective conversion of payment notices to pay less notices. The court also confirmed that mere tolerance of late notices will not establish estoppel by convention. The judgment demonstrates the TCC's robust approach to protecting statutory payment regimes against technical arguments that would undermine their practical operation, while reinforcing that Part 8 proceedings are unsuitable for resolving factual disputes about estoppel.

Construction analysis: The court refused to set aside a default judgment. Applying CPR 13.3, it held that the defendant developer had no realistic prospect of defending the claims for unpaid consultant fees and damages for wrongful repudiation of the contract. When considering whether the application to set aside was promptly made, the court considered the whole period from when judgment was entered until the hearing, and held that the application was therefore not prompt. There was no explanation or excuse for the defendant’s delays and it had not made out a case for relief from sanctions under the Denton three stage test (CPR 3.9).

The European Parliament has adopted a legislative initiative report calling on the European Commission to propose rules governing algorithmic management in EU workplaces. The report seeks to ensure transparent, fair and safe use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems by requiring human oversight of all algorithm-supported decisions. Parliament specified that key employment decisions, including recruitment, dismissal, contract renewal, remuneration changes and disciplinary action, must be taken by a human and subject to human review. Workers should be informed about how algorithmic systems operate, the data they collect and how they affect working conditions, and must be able to request explanations or reviews where they believe their rights have been infringed.

PayPal has committed to amending its terms and conditions to ensure they are more transparent and easier to understand for consumers, following a dialogue with the European Commission and national consumer authorities. The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) commenced a dialogue with PayPal in May 2023. The CPC found that PayPal's terms and conditions were unreasonably difficult for consumers to understand. PayPal has agreed to address the issues raised by the CPC and to modify the problematic clauses of its User Agreement to ensure it complies better with the Unfair Contract Terms Directive. PayPal's commitments will ensure its practices are aligned with the requirements of EU consumer law.

The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) has launched a €1m EU4Health call for tenders on 1 August 2025 to provide administrative and secretarial support for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2025/327 on the European Health Data Space (EHDS Regulation) and related digital health initiatives. The contract will support the coordination of governance bodies and expert groups central to the EHDS’s operational rollout. This initiative forms part of the 2025 EU4Health Annual Work Programme (action DI-p-25-66) and aims to strengthen health systems through effective digital governance.

The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) has published an analysis exploring the application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) to reverse auctions in public procurement. The article highlights ongoing debates regarding whether these processes fall under the Article 2(b) CISG exclusion for sales by auction. CIArb notes that the CISG Advisory Council has appointed a rapporteur to address this issue in an upcoming Opinion. The analysis also discusses recent case law and international practices, including a Swiss Federal Supreme Court decision applying CISG to a government contract and Brazilian examples of explicit CISG references in procurement processes.

The International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) has announced the launch of its Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) Clause Library and Taxonomy, a catalogue of GMRA clauses and their negotiated business outcomes, along with a library of model wordings that could be used to draft for such outcomes in a standardised manner across market participants. The ICMA GMRA Clause Library and Taxonomy aims to eliminate or reduce the need to negotiate and the time spent debating the form of contract clauses that achieve the same business outcomes. Market participants will benefit by achieving cost savings in on-boarding new counterparties.

This week's edition of Construction weekly highlights includes analysis of a Technology and Construction Court (TCC) decision on jurisdictional and natural justice challenges to adjudication enforcement (Westgreen v Kiryukhina), an SBCC errata sheet for its 2024 Minor Works contract, a Welsh Government consultation on revising the National Development Framework (NDF), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) proposals for new mayoral planning powers in England, new MHCLG guidance on section 106 affordable housing delivery, the Scottish Government's response to its consultation on accelerating home-building, and MHCLG's allocation of £9.58bn under the first phase of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

This Precedent is drafted in contemplation of arrangements where the parties wish to insert data processing provisions within a Schedule rather than as clauses in the main body of the agreement, for example due to the length of compliant provisions. It is based on Precedent: Personal data processing clause—short-form—pro-processor. This schedule uses the additional defined terms ‘Agreement’, ‘Business Day’, ‘Charges’, ‘Customer’, ‘Services’, ‘Supplier’ and ‘Supplier Personnel’, which are not specific to data processing and which it is assumed are separately defined in the relevant agreement. The Schedule Part A: Operative provisions 1 Definitions 1.1 In this Schedule: applicable law • means applicable law of the United Kingdom (or of a part of the United Kingdom); Controller • has the meaning given in applicable Data Protection Laws from time to time; Data Protection Laws • means, as binding on either party or the Services: (a) the GDPR; (b) the Data Protection Act 2018; and (c) any laws that supplement, replace, extend, re-enact, consolidate or amend any of the foregoing; Data Subject • has the meaning given in applicable Data Protection Laws from time to time; GDPR • means the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, as it forms part of domestic law in

Sometimes the claimant may choose to base his claim on reliance interest rather than his expectations under the contract.