The Pit of Permanent Establishment – Part 2

The Local Distributor / Agent Model In “The Pit of Permanent Establishment – Part 1”, we looked at how a technology business could find itself creating a permanent establishment in a foreign jurisdiction by accident – just by starting to do business without obtaining appropriate tax and legal advice, and that this invariably resulted in adverse cost consequences for the …

UK Autumn Spending review for the Technology Industries

We looked closely at the Chancellor’s 2015 UK Autumn Spending Statement this week to see how it might affect the technology industries here in the UK. It seems that up to £600 million of additional funds will be set aside to support the move to turn the 700 Mhz frequency spectrum over to wireless broadband in the UK. This follows …

The Pit of Permanent Establishment – Part 1

When technology businesses have exhausted the market in the UK, the next logical step is to start exporting services. Exporting to EEA countries has its own challenges, including differences of language and sometimes also of culture, but exporting beyond the European Single Market may bring some more interesting additional legal and fiscal challenges, including the spectre of “permanent establishment”. A …

More Chances to Raise Money for Good Causes

As the squeeze tightens on the State’s purse strings, we thought that the day of the UK Chancellor’s Spending Review was a good day to smile sweetly and say that in a world where charities almost certainly have insufficient resources to pick up the burden of much that was once provided by the State, the Government has at least proposed …

Governing Law (Does the Contract do what it says on the Tin?)

Why not just give in when a customer or supplier wants a contract to be governed by the laws of the country they are based in? Well it might work and it might not, and whilst this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few things to think about….. 1. The Biggest Show in Town Problem If you are …

Universal Service Obligation for Broadband Coming Soon?

Be aware that the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) will be consulting early in 2016 concerning its proposal that the government should introduce a broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO), with the aim of giving customers the legal right to demand a broadband connection speed of 10Mbps, regardless of location. In its 7th November 2015 press release, DCMS …

Beware Fake Agencies

If your business has an intellectual property registration in the UK, you may have received letters from one or more “agencies” with a name, which looks surprisingly similar to the “UK Intellectual Property Office” telling you that your registration is about to expire and that you need to pay money to avoid your registration being cancelled. The letters are not …

Safe Harbour No Longer Safe: Israeli DPA Response

On 20th October, we reported the decision of the European Court of Justice decision that the existence of the “safe harbour” agreements operated by the US Federal Trade Commission were no longer grounds for validating the transfer of Mr Schrem’s data from Facebook Ireland to Facebook in the US. That decision was published on 7th October. Be aware that on …

Legal Agreements are for Life and not Just for Christmas…..

The Court of Appeal case of Dixon and another v Blindley Heath Investments Limited (2015) EWCA Civ 1023 is an interesting decision about what happens when a business (or its lawyers) prepare a set of legal documents, which are intended to govern the rights of the stakeholders in the business, but then the business ignores or forgets about those documents …