1. Have there been any recent developments regarding the DRC merger control regime and are any updates/developments expected in the coming year? Are there any other ‘hot’ merger control issues in the DRC? The DRC adopted a new Law on Pricing, Freedom and Competition on 8 July 2019 (Competition Act) which introduced a merger control regime. The powers of the new DRC Competition Commission (Commission) have not yet been promulgated and therefore the ‘old’ Competition Commission which was established under the Order establishing the Competition Commission of 1987, is currently tasked with exercising powers under the Competition Act. The Minister of the Economy has the final decision of whether to approve a transaction. There are no updates or developments expected in the coming year, nor any hot merger control issues currently in the DRC to our knowledge. 2. Under DRC merger control law, is the control test the same as the EU concept of ‘decisive influence’? If not, how does it differ and what is the position in relation to 'minority shareholdings'? Yes,

The Department for Business and Trade has published factsheets which set out what each policy or framework within the Employment Rights Bill aims to do and explains how it will work.

Banking & Finance analysis: The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has published its first report on the implementation of Parts 1 to 3 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023), which received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. It seeks to deliver a range of reforms to corporate transparency and improve the integrity of information held at Companies House. The report sets out progress made by Companies House to date and provides detail on the future steps and timings that will follow.

This Practice Note discusses the key provisions of the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive 2014/49/EU (DGSD), which requires Member States to establish a deposit guarantee scheme (DGS) to protect depositors and improve financial stability by controlling the risk of a run on the bank. The DGSD recast Directive (EC) 94/19/EC (the original DGSD), which was repealed and replaced by the DGSD in the interests of clarity as it had been substantially amended over the years. As the UK was an EU Member State when the DGSD began to apply, the recast EU DGSD was implemented in the UK, this Practice Note considers both the EU requirements and the UK’s implementation of the EU DGSD. Background and introduction to the DGSD TheDGSD is one of two existing EU guarantee scheme directives. The other, the Investor Compensation Schemes Directive 97/9/EC (ICSD) is discussed in Practice Note: Investor Compensation Schemes Directive. The original DGSD was introduced in 1994 and only required a minimum level of harmonisation between domestic DGSs in the EU. It proved disruptive for financial stability

Background and the Responsible Actors Scheme In the years following the Grenfell Tower fire incident, the government made clear that it intended to hold the construction industry to account for practices that contributed to the prevalence of fire safety defects in residential buildings, and would ensure that responsible parties played a role in ‘[fixing] the problems they created’. With that aim, in January 2022, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Michael Gove, issued a letter to residential property developers, seeking their commitment to remediate, or pay for the remediation of, historic fire safety defects for which they were responsible (see: LNB News 10/01/2022 32). In April 2022, DLUHC invited major residential property developers to sign a pledge letter setting out the principle that leaseholders should not have to pay for any costs associated with life-critical fire-safety remediation work arising from the design, construction or refurbishment of buildings of 11 metres and above. In signing this letter, the developers confirmed their intention to take responsibility for performing or funding self-remediation and/or

Background Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Welsh Government established the Building Safety Programme to address life-critical fire-safety risks in residential and mixed-use buildings in Wales. The Programme is intended to identify affected buildings, support the assessment and remediation of fire-safety defects, and ensure that leaseholders are protected from the costs of necessary remediation works. In developing the Programme, the Welsh Government identified that a number of residential and mixed-use buildings in Wales of 11 metres and over in height contained fire safety defects and that, under the law as it then stood, leaseholders would ordinarily have been responsible for meeting the cost of remediation. In response, the Welsh Ministers made financial provision through the Welsh Building Safety Fund for survey work and certain remediation works in respect of such buildings. On 19 July 2022, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Climate Change wrote to major residential property developers inviting them to enter into a developer’s pact setting out agreed principles, including that leaseholders should not have to pay for life-critical fire-safety remediation arising from the

Introduction In the 2022 Queen’s Speech, the Government announced a suite of reforms covering digital markets, competition, and consumer law. On 25 April 2023, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (the Bill) was introduced into the House of Commons. The ‘ping-pong’ stage of consideration of amendments in the House of Commons and House of Lords was nearly concluded when the Bill was included in the ‘wash up’ process following announcement of the general election in 2024. On 24 May 2024, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) received Royal Assent. Although the DMCC Act received Royal Assent, the main provisions were brought into force by statutory instrument, except those relating to foreign acquisitions of newspapers and energy network mergers which entered into force on 24 May 2024 and 24 July 2024 respectively. On 25 November 2024, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No 1 and Savings and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/1226) (the Regulations) were made. The Regulations

This Practice Note summarises the key provisions of the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024) from a consumer protection perspective. This includes the revocation and replacement of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, SI 2008/1277, new rules for subscription (not yet in force) and consumer saving scheme contracts and the revocation and replacement of Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015, SI 2015/542. It further considers the introduction of enhanced CMA enforcement powers. On 24 May 2024, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill received Royal Assent, becoming DMCCA 2024. It introduces significant reforms to UK consumer protection law, competition law and the regulation of digital markets. It is partly in force from the date of Royal Assent, however, most of the key provisions and obligations under DMCCA 2024 will be, or have been, brought into force via secondary legislation. For detailed tracking, see Practice Note: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024—consumer protection tracker. This Practice Note considers the provisions

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. On 6 April 2025, Part 4, Chapter 1 (unfair commercial practices) (excluding sections 232, 234 and 235 relating to a consumer’s right of redress) of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024) entered into force. DMCCA 2024 for the most part revokes and replaces the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR 2008), SI 2008/1277. Many of the unfair commercial practices provisions of DMCCA 2024 mirror those of CPUTR 2008, subject to certain clarifications to the language. In addition, DMCCA 2024 introduced new protections to address concerns raised in consultation relating to: • fake or misleading reviews • drip or hidden pricing For more information, see Practice Notes: Consumer protection from unfair trading under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024—key consumer protection provisions. Around the same time, the Committee of Advertising Practice

EU Law analysis: On 16 June 2026, the European Parliament approved the text of the Digital Omnibus on AI proposal, which was provisionally agreed with the Council of the EU in May. The proposal is a targeted amending regulation separated from the wider November 2025 Digital Omnibus package and progressed on an accelerated timeline ahead of the 2 August 2026 application date for high-risk obligations under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the EU AI Act). The agreed text preserves the EU AI Act’s risk-based architecture while resetting the high-risk timelines to fixed dates, centralising supervision of certain general-purpose AI systems in the AI Office, adding a prohibition on AI systems generating non-consensual intimate material and child sexual abuse material, and extending several simplifications to small mid-cap enterprises. At the time of writing, formal adoption now rests with the Council of the EU, expected before 2 August 2026.

This Practice Note examines Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the EU Digital Single Market (EU DSM Copyright Directive). It summarises and explains the background to and individual articles of the EU DSM Copyright Directive, including the controversy around the wording of certain provisions of the EU DSM Copyright Directive such as Article 15 on rights in press publications and Article 17 on use of protected content by online content sharing service providers (OCSSPs). The Practice Note also covers implementation in Member States. The EU DSM Copyright Directive amended Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases (EU Database Directive) and Directive 2001/29/EC (EU InfoSoc Directive). For more information, see Practice Note: Copyright and databases tracker—EU. Background The EU has actively worked to bring its copyright laws in line with modern use of the internet and online content and it created a framework of 13 directives and two regulations,

This Practice Note examines Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the EU Digital Single Market (EU DSM Copyright Directive). It briefly summarises and explains the background to and individual articles of the EU DSM Copyright Directive, including the controversy around the wording of certain provisions of the EU DSM Copyright Directive such as Article 15 on rights in press publications and Article 17 on use of protected content by online content sharing service providers (OCSSPs). The Practice Note addresses the status of the EU DSM Copyright Directive in the UK and divergence between the UK and EU on key provisions. The EU DSM Copyright Directive amended Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases (EU Database Directive) and Directive 2001/29/EC (EU InfoSoc Directive). For more information on developments in copyright and databases in the UK, see Practice Note: Copyright and databases tracker—UK, and for information on developments in the