Friday, 16 March 2012

Hi, here is your weekly round-up of highlights from Out-Law News. As always, there are plenty of other stories from this week. You can also access our archive of weekly emails

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This week's highlights from Out-Law News

TMT & Sourcing and Intellectual Property

Watchdog reduced data protection penalties in 50% of cases, FOI disclosure reveals
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has reduced fines for organisations that have breached data protection law in half of the cases in which it has issued direct fines, Out-Law.com can reveal.
15/03/2012


Regulator reports initial findings on operators' traffic management practices

EU telecoms companies are commonly using 'traffic management' practices to block Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic and peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing activity online, an EU regulator has said.
15/03/2012


New Chinese internet regulations come into force

New regulations governing the activity of internet information service providers (IISPs) in China have come into force today. The new regulations require IISPs to abide by certain rules relating to the collection and processing of users' personal data.
15/03/2012


Alleged copyright infringing student extradition approved

The Home Secretary has approved the extradition to the US of a student accused of copyright infringement.
14/03/2012


Yahoo! suing Facebook over alleged patent infringement

Yahoo! has initiated legal proceedings against Facebook in the US after claiming that the social networking giant has infringed on its patents.
14/03/2012


High Court quashes pub landlady conviction over football copyrights infringement

The pub landlady who was fined for screening FA Premier League (FAPL) football matches using a foreign satellite decoder has had her criminal conviction overturned by the High Court.
13/03/2012


Tax
New legislation closes income tax avoidance scheme, Government says
The Government has closed a tax loophole which enabled individuals to pay less income tax by recording artificial losses in a property business that owns agricultural land.
15/03/2012


Channel Islands to challenge Treasury on closure of offshore tax loophole

The Channel Islands is to challenge the Treasury's decision to bring to an end a tax loophole used by major retailers to avoid VAT charges when bringing low value goods into the UK.
13/03/2012


Environment and climate change
Government consults on implementation of new European industrial emissions rules
The Government is consulting on updated Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPRs) which will implement more stringent European industrial emissions standards.
14/03/2012


Competition
E-book investigation settlement subject to publisher actions, Commissioner says
Publishers being investigated over alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the electronic books (e-books) market will have to "remove" all "objections" the European Commission has raised in order for a settlement in the case to be negotiated, the EU's Competition Commissioner has said.
14/03/2012


Pensions
Employees must be consulted in advance before pension scheme measure of inflation can be changed
Employers with occupational pension schemes will have to consult with affected employees in advance if they want to change the measure of inflation used to calculate the value of benefits.
14/03/2012


Energy
Energy intensive industries asked to shape £250m Government funding package
Businesses likely to be affected by higher energy bills as a result of UK and European climate change policies have been asked for information to help shape a £250 million funding package aimed at reducing their costs.
13/03/2012



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