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The once shunned cannabis sector now offers attractive PE opportunities in many jurisdictions.

By Stuart Alford QC, Tom D. Evans, Eveline Van Keymeulen, Elizabeth Richards, David J. Walker, and Catherine Campbell

In years gone by, the prospect of significant PE investment in the cannabis industry would have been unthinkable for many. However, regulatory and legal developments have created opportunities for medical cannabis businesses and legalised new non-medical cannabis applications in many jurisdictions. According to Pitchbook, buyout firms invested US$3.54 billion into the cannabis sector in 2021 across 223 transactions, showing significant appetite for deals. PE firms now have scope to embrace growing medical and consumer interest in certain jurisdictions, while in others, such as the US, evolving legal restrictions continue to challenge investors.

Update confirms the introduction of an active “duty of care” and a dedicated regulator, as part of a comprehensive new online regulatory regime.

By Alain Traill, Rachael Astin, Gail E. Crawford, and Patrick Mitchell

Following a wave of commentary from industry, the social sector, and other organisations, on 11 February 2020 the UK government set out preliminary details of a new regulatory regime to govern content posted on online platforms. The details were released in an initial response to last year’s online harms white paper, with a full response expected this spring. While some changes have been made to the white paper proposals, seemingly in response to concerns raised by industry and other stakeholders, the government has confirmed that it will introduce an active “duty of care” on organisations to prevent certain content from appearing on their platforms.

The proposed new regime mirrors similar steps taken in other jurisdictions, e.g., Australia, to protect against harmful content online. It is also in-line with the direction of travel of platform regulation at a European level, taking into account, for example, changes to the AVMS Directive (EU) 2018/1808 (AVMSD) to regulate video-sharing platform services (VSPs) in relation to protection of minors and harmful content, and the planned EU Digital Services Act, which is likely to introduce changes to EU law regarding the liability of platform providers for content posted using their services.

Latham explores the primary legal developments for issuers and their advisers in the year ahead.

By Chris Horton, James Inness, and Connor Cahalane

The regulatory regime and disclosure requirements for listed companies in the UK will continue to evolve in 2020. Issuers and their advisers should be aware of the key legal developments that will occur during this year, including FCA consultations, ESMA guidelines and reports, and measures to increase corporate transparency.

For Latham’s timeline of regulatory regime…

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 of regulators. We will raise this issue with them again shortly. We can’t carry on like this.”

The call follows earlier correspondence on this topic between Andrew Tyrie, various major UK banks, the FCA and the PRA.