General Commercial Topics

• Bank Deposit Protection Rules for Businesses : Guide The levels of protection available for different investments underwritten by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) are detailed on their website. The FSCS protects the deposits of small companies, which are those which meet two of three...
• Bribery Act Guidance The Government provides guidance for businesses on complying with the Bribery Act 2010 , which came into force on 1 July 2011. The Act was originally scheduled to take effect in April 2011, but its implementation was delayed to allow the final version of...
• Business Relief - Traps for the Unwary Most business people know that for family businesses there are generous Inheritance Tax (IHT) reliefs, which generally operate to make assets used in the business exempt or partially exempt from IHT. The reliefs take various forms but have been collectively...
• Buying from an Administrator - Take Care With businesses becoming insolvent in large numbers, opportunities abound to acquire assets from their administrators. However, the low prices sought for the assets are due, at least in part, to the additional risk to the purchaser. Here are some of the...
• Companies Act 2006 Overview and Company Information The Companies Act 2006 became fully effective from October 1st 2009. It is the principal source of law relating to the conduct of companies incorporated in England and Wales. Companies House provides useful information on the Act on its website . In...
• Company Name Rules You cannot incorporate a company using any name you like. Some names are prohibited (for example, those which suggest a connection with the Government or the Crown) and names will not be allowed if they are too similar to the names of existing companies. ...
• Company Disclosure Rules - The Basics The Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008 set out the the requirements as to where and when company trading names, names of directors etc. need to be shown. The Statutory Instrument implementing the changes is both short and straightforward. In...
• Company Formation Checklist You may have come across advertisements which make forming a company sound very easy, but before you go ahead there are some serious issues to think through. If you have decided that a company is the best vehicle for your new venture then here is a...
• Consumer Protection Regulations Businesses that deal with the public are reminded that legislation will come into effect soon to give consumers better protection under the law than they currently have. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 received the Royal Assent on 26 March and became law on...
• Contractors Are Your Responsibility A handbook  produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) outlines the responsibilities of both the contractor and the client in situations in which work is carried out by contractors rather then employees. It does not apply to circumstances in...
• Disputes in the EU - Rules on Applicable Law Where a dispute has a foreign element, one of the common problems is deciding under what jurisdiction legal action should be taken. This is avoided in many commercial contracts by specifying the applicable law in the contract, but in consumer contracts there...
• Employee Fraud Most corporate fraud is employee fraud. Although fraud has traditionally been regarded as hard to prove, the Fraud Act 2006 provisions make it easier to obtain convictions for fraud a than was possible under the predecessor legislation. Under the Act,...
• Employee Fraud: Warning Signs Most corporate fraud is employee fraud. ‘Targeted’ frauds, often backed by organised criminals, are also becoming more common. In these cases, an employee (often using a stolen identity) is ‘planted’ in an organisation with the...
• Financial Fraud - What Not to Do! With recent surveys showing that instances of employee fraud are still on the increase, and HMRC showing regrettable lack of ability to safeguard personal data, eliminating poor security practices which make fraud easier is becoming even more important....
• Franchising Your Business - the Basics If you have been running a successful business for a period of time, you may be considering expansion. One of the options available is to start a franchise. When it first came into existence, franchising was broadly frowned upon but, in recent years, it has...
• GDPR Documenting Processing Activities Article 30 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains explicit provisions that require organisations to maintain internal records of their data processing activities. This obligation reflects the increased importance of accountability...
• GDPR General Principles The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies detailed provisions to ensure that personal data – i.e. any data relating to an identifiable person – is properly processed and kept secure, and imposes a significant compliance regime on...
• GDPR Guidance If you have not yet taken steps to ensure your business complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR ), the time to start is now: it came into force, on 25 May 2018, from which date the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will start to...
• Insolvency and Pre-Packs Legislation on insolvency enacted in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015   affect directors of companies that become insolvent. The Act added two new grounds for disqualifying a person from being a director of a UK company and...
• Investing in Small Businesses and Start-Ups - The EIS and SEIS Schemes The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS ) and the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) are popular vehicles for investment in small or start-up businesses. Both are attractive because the tax advantages for 'qualifying investors' are considerable. The...
• Letters of Intent - Getting Them Right What Is a Letter of Intent? Letters of intent, commonly referred to as 'heads of agreement', are used to indicate the terms under which two or more people intend to enter into a contractual relationship when doing business together. The term 'letter of...
• Limited Liability Partnerships: Procedures and Guide Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) were first introduced in April 2001 and are becoming an increasingly popular way of structuring a business, especially with professional practices. The big advantage of the LLP is that it allows the liability of...
• Making Retention of Title Work Prior to the recession, Retention of Title (RoT) clauses probably received less attention than they should have from many businesses. However, RoT is now back in the spotlight. An effective RoT clause will normally allow you to recover the goods you have...
• Money Laundering Regulations Money laundering is the process by which criminals turn their 'dirty' income – which is usually earned in cash – into 'clean' money, by undertaking transactions which hide the original source of the cash and/or turn the cash into 'legitimate...
• Nuisance Calls and Texts Law Since 6 April 2015, changes to the law have given the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) enhanced powers to take action against companies making nuisance marketing calls and sending spam messages. Previously, the ICO could only issue a civil monetary...