Christian Moerch Corporate and commercial contracts often contain references to ‘best endeavours’ and ‘reasonable endeavours’. Have you ever considered the meaning of these words? In this note...
Rule against Penalties
Christian Moerch Yiannis Efthyvoulou Under the common law, there is a rule against penalties in contracts and such clauses are unenforceable. The rule is based on public policy – a party should not ...
Terminating your Contract
Businesses will need to terminate their contracts from time to time for various reasons. It is very important that you get the termination right to avoid problems. For example, if the court disagrees ...
COVID-19 – Force Majeure and Frustration – Relief from Contractual Commitments
The outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic in China in December 2019 has caused significant disruption at an unprecedented scale to business worldwide and businesses should carefully review t...
Coronavirus Crisis: Business Risks and Director Duties
As the the coronavirus crisis continues unabated in the UK and around the globe, primarily directors and to some extent other stakeholders, must remain vigilant and identify, manage and mitigate any...
New EU Online Dispute Resolution platform
From 15 February 2016, the EU Online Dispute Resolution (“ODR”) platform will come into operation for businesses and consumers. It is intended to allow consumers and traders to settle online dispu...
Case Update: Document validly executed when signing director left office between signature and completion
The High Court has found that a company debenture, signed by its sole director and the company secretary but not completed for three months by which time the director had left office, was validly comp...
European Court of Justice has declared Safe Harbor invalid
On 6 October 2015 the European Court of Justice issued a judgement in favour of a private individual Mr Schrems, against Facebook, declaring as inadequate the protection provided by the US safe harbou...
New Consumer Rights arrive on 1 October 2015
Consumer law is changing as the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) comes into force on 1 October 2015. The law will be clearer and easier to understand, meaning that consumers should be able to buy and busines...
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 come into force on 13 June 2014 to replace the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and th...