How can private equity firms identify and mitigate inherited liability risk from vulnerable portfolio companies? By Tom Evans, Gail Crawford, Fiona Maclean, David Walker, Katie Peek, Catherine Campbell, and Amy Smyth Ongoing big ticket regulatory fines coupled with high profile corporate veil cases indicate that private equity deal teams must remain alert to the risk of … Continue Reading
GDPR and PSD2 are two legal initialisms that have both generated a great deal of press coverage in recent months, but they are seldom considered together. By Christian F. McDermott, Calum Docherty and Brett Carr There were around 122 billion non-cash payments in the European Union (EU) in 2016, with card payments accounting for 49% … Continue Reading
FCA Chair hints that new regulation addressing data ethics in the FinTech space may be on the horizon. By Nicola Higgs, Fiona Maclean and Terese Saplys Will societies of the future be ruled by algocracy, in which algorithms decide how humans are governed? Charles Randell, Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford, Hayley Pizzey, Mark Sun, and Calum Warren As European data protection regulators prepare to enforce the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from May 2018, private equity firms must act to minimise the risk of becoming financially liable for the data protection failings of portfolio companies. After a recent spate of high-profile data breaches, … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford, Mark Sun and Katie Campbell Amid a growing number of high-profile corporate data breaches, cybersecurity is now a key issue for strategic acquirers. The hack of Yahoo, which came to light midway through its 2016 takeover by Verizon, resulted in a US$350 million purchase price reduction. The true extent of the hack … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Calum Docherty Her Majesty’s Government last week published a position paper outlining its preferred post-Brexit landscape for data protection. The high-level takeaways are hardly surprising: the government stresses that it intends to “remain a global leader on data protection” and, as we already know, the UK’s Data Protection Bill, announced in … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Danielle van der Merwe Following the commencement of the Brexit negotiations earlier this week, the Queen announced in her speech on Wednesday a new law that will “ensure the United Kingdom retains its world-class regime protecting personal data”. This bill will replace the current Data Protection Act 1998 in the UK. One of … Continue Reading
By Sophie Lamb and Samuel Pape The latest global ‘WannaCry’ attack has again brought to the fore the need for sovereign and private parties to have in place adequate cyber-security measures and response plans to deal with cyber-attacks, including in the context of international arbitration. As attackers are becoming increasingly resourceful in their ability to … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Christian McDermott The recent cyberattack on Tesco Bank’s IT systems has prompted Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the Treasury Committee, to call on regulators to take action against vulnerable bank IT systems: “Making sure that banks improve their IT systems, and their resilience to cybercrime, is also a responsibility … Continue Reading
