Metatags are keywords and descriptions included in the invisible hypertext mark-up language (html) of websites.

The use of metatags and keyword advertising is legal, but has led to litigation where website owners have used the trade marks of competitors as keywords to divert web traffic to their own sites. The competitor’s trade mark is not normally visible in the advert or on the advertiser’s site, but the advert or the weblink is displayed when an internet user types the competitor’s trade mark as a search term. The main question is whether the use of third-party trade marks in metatags or keyword advertising amounts to infringement. Terminology • ‘metatags’ are keywords and descriptions included in the invisible hypertext mark-up language (html) of websites. They describe the website’s content. When an internet user types a keyword or description into a search engine, the search engine will search the metatags as well as the visible text on websites, to produce a list of the most relevant websites (the 'natural' results). Metatags are used by website owners to increase the chances of search engines listing their

MLex: Meta Platforms’ use of user data for AI model training contributed to UK lawmakers last night forcing through a change to the emerging data reform bill aimed at preventing people’s data being used for training without their consent and ultimately building trust in AI. The government tried to resist the change—technically related to the processing of personal data for scientific research, but was defeated in a vote. It will be able to remove the changes at the next stage of the legislative process.

MLex: Meta Platforms Ireland’s appeal against an EU General Court ruling was published by the EU’s top court today. In its appeal from July 2025, Meta asked the court to overturn a ruling that dismissed its challenge of an opinion by the European Data Protection Board (an umbrella group of national data protection authorities) on the company’s ‘consent or pay’ business model, saying the first-tier court had relied on ‘contradictory and insufficient reasoning’.

MLex: Meta Platforms Ireland’s challenge of an opinion by the umbrella group of EU data protection authorities on the ‘consent or pay’ business model has been rejected as inadmissible at an EU court. The US technology giant asked the court to declare the opinion null and void. The action was dismissed as it was ‘in part, inadmissible and, in part, manifestly lacking any foundation in law’, the EU’s lower-tier General Court said.

CASE HUB ARCHIVED—this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 3 November 2023; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline Case facts Outline CMA Chapter II CA98 investigation into whether Meta is abusing its dominant position in the social media or digital advertising markets through its collection and use of advertising and single sign-on data. Latest developments On 20 August 2024, the CMA announced it has accepted a variation of the commitments that were previously accepted in November 2023. The variation now contains the option of excluding certain ad data from all advertisers from being used by Meta in Facebook Marketplace. Under this option, advertisers would retain the ability to place ads on Facebook Marketplace. Parties • Meta Platforms Inc (Meta): Meta is a US-based technology conglomerate. Meta provides various online products and services to UK users. Those online products and services include popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Background CMA’s market study On 1 July 2020, the CMA published its final

A service that is charged according to usage, usually on a pence per minute basis.

A written description of how the contractor proposes to carry out the works.

Introduction to statutory interpretation The aim of statutory interpretation is to arrive at the legal meaning of legislation, or in other words, the meaning that conveys the legislative intention. The primary indication of legislative intention is the legislative text, read in context and having regard to its purpose. The court should aim to give effect to the purpose of legislation by interpreting its language, so far as possible, in a way which best gives effect to that purpose. In other words, the courts’ basic approach to interpretation is purposive, and every enactment is to be given a purposive construction. There is a presumption that the grammatical meaning of an enactment is the meaning intended by the legislator. Where an enactment is capable of only one meaning and other interpretative principles or factors do not raise any real doubt as to that meaning, the enactment is to be given its plain meaning. In this case, the plain meaning will align with the legislative purpose. But where there is doubt about the meaning of legislation (either because

THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES IN RELATION TO DEFINED BENEFIT LIABILITIES How defined benefit (DB) liabilities should be valued depends on: • the valuation method to be used. Common types of valuations carried out include: ◦ scheme-specific funding valuations as required under Part 3 of the Pensions Act 2004 (PeA 2004) ◦ solvency (or buy-out) valuations as required by the Occupational Pension Scheme (Scheme Funding) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/337, reg 7 ◦ valuations as required by the PeA 2004, ss 143 and 179 (often referred to respectively as s 143 valuations and s 179 valuations) ◦ neutral estimates to satisfy the requirements of Technical Actuarial Standard 300 (Pensions) ◦ cash equivalent transfer values (CETV) as specified under the Occupational Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1847, and ◦ IAS19 and UK GAAP valuations, and • whether the liabilities in question relate to past service or future service This Practice Note explains the above valuation methods, as well as related funding concepts. Scheme-specific

MLex: Metro Bank’s multimillion-pound fine on 12 November 2024 makes it the second digital challenger bank in the UK to be fined over lax anti-money laundering controls since October 2024, showing that the regulator is backing previous warnings on new banks with tough action. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been cautioning banks to expect tougher enforcement for more than two years.

The point of inter-connection between the access and core networks of an NGA (next generation access) communications provider. It is equivalent to the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) in the case of the copper access network. All NGA subscribers' connections in a given area (usually a town or part of a town) are centralised to the MPoP on an Optical Distribution Frame (ODF). From the ODF, NGA loops are connected to the core network equipment of the NGA communications provider or of other communications providers, possibly via intermediate backhaul links where equipment is not collocated in the MPoP.