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View online Hi, here is your weekly round-up of Out-Law News highlights from international law firm Pinsent Masons.  As always, there are plenty  of other stories from this week.  You can also access our archive of weekly emails.     This week's highlights from Out-Law News TMT & Sourcing and Intellectual Property  Insurers expected to encounter tax issue in relation to business process outsourcing, expert warns Businesses are expected to spend more than $25 billion this year through arranging for third-parties to perform finance and accounting processing tasks on their behalf, according to new research. 11/04/2013 Suppliers sought for potential £1 billion IT services contracts with London authorities Local authorities in London have launched a tendering process in a bid to form a framework agreement with up to three suppliers for the provision of IT services. 09/04/2013 Individuals' consent 'almost always' required by firms when using personal data in big data projects centred on profiling, says watchdog Organisations "almost always" require individuals' "free, specific, informed and unambiguous 'opt-in' consent" in order to make use of personal data they have previously collected in 'big data' projects that involve analysing or predicting the "personal preferences, behaviour and attitudes of individual customers", an EU privacy watchdog has said. 09/04/2013 Businesses can provide the detail of their purpose in collecting personal data via links in online policies, says watchdog Businesses can provide descriptive information about the purpose of their collection of personal data via links embedded into online policies accessible to consumers, an EU privacy watchdog has said. 09/04/2013 FOCUS: Financial Services in the cloud Every financial institution has by now probably asked the question in some part of the organisation, when and to what extent can we move data to a (public) cloud? 08/04/2013 BIS issues guidance on what costs can be passed to consumers through payment surcharges The Government has issued guidance that sets out the kind of costs businesses incur that they are legitimately able to claim back through payment surcharging under new rules set to come into force this weekend. 05/04/2013 Pensions Solvency II costs "in line with worst case scenario" for UK pensions, says minister The latest estimated cost to UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes of complying with proposed EU-wide solvency requirements is in line with the UK Government's "worst case scenario", the Pensions Minister has said. 11/04/2013 Financial services Financial regulators' funding requirements highlight "proactive approach" to regulation, says expert Regulated financial services firms have been asked to pay an additional 15% in fees to fund the new regulatory structure over the next financial year, according to documents published this week. 10/04/2013 Employment New equality guidance "recommends best practice" rather than creates new rights, says expert Guidance on how employers should deal with requests made by employees in relation to religion or belief does not create new rights, but rather recommends "good practice" to help employers comply with existing laws, an expert has said. 10/04/2013 Property tax Stamp duty land tax sub-sale relief scheme failed because a novation was not a transfer of rights, according to Tribunal A scheme to avoid stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on the purchase of a London house, involving a novation of a contract, failed because SDLT sub-sale relief was only available where there was a transfer of rights and a novation was not a transfer of rights, according to a decision of the First Tier Tax Tribunal. 10/04/2013 VAT & indirect taxes Holding companies can be considered part of a corporate group for VAT purposes, says CJEU National tax authorities are entitled to consider a non-taxable company as part of the same economic grouping as taxable companies for VAT purposes, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled. 09/04/2013 Banking Cable "considering ban" for former HBOS directors following Parliamentary Commission report Business Secretary Vince Cable is considering whether it would be possible to disqualify three former directors of HBOS from holding similar positions in future, according to press reports, following last week's publication of a highly critical report on the failure of the bank in 2008. 09/04/2013 Pinsent Masons: combining the experience, resources and international reach of McGrigors and Pinsent Masons   About this email This is a weekly email for subscribers of Out-Law.com, a website with more than 10,000 pages of legal news and guidance. 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