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In search of certainty – EU to update competition rules on supply agreements On 8 September, the European Commission published its final working document evaluating the EU competition rules on supply agreements, namely the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) and accompanying Vertical Guidelines. Echoing its earlier report o... Singapore Mediation Convention to enter force: a new world for cross-border mediation? This Saturday, 12 September, the Singapore Mediation Convention (also known as the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation) will enter force for the first states to have ratified it.  The Singapore Mediati... Innovation after COVID: call for a new virtual universe On 2 September the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) published the 13th edition of its Global Innovation Index (GII). Why is the GII published? The GII is intended to help governments and policymakers move away from viewing IP as a technical disci... ECB extends recommendation not to pay dividends until January 2021 On 28 July 2020, the ECB extended its recommendation that banks suspend the distribution of dividends and share buybacks until 1 January 2021 and, in addition, requested banks to be extremely moderate with regard to variable remuneration. First issued ... Germany takes the next step on the road to dematerialised securities On 11 August 2020, the German Ministries of Finance, and Justice and Consumer Protection, published a draft bill (the 'Law on electronic securities' Bill) that, if enacted, will introduce electronic debt securities into German law and with that see Germa... Break fees and VAT HMRC had for some time taken a somewhat arbitrary position in relation to the VAT liability of payments made by a party terminating a contract, such as a break fee under a lease.  In their view, the treatment depended upon whether the termination provisio... EU-UK trade deal – can we learn from other FTAs between geographic neighbours? What are the comparators for trade agreements between close geographic partners?  This briefing takes stock of the current state of negotiations between the UK and EU and considers how such areas of disagreement have been addressed in other free trade ... New rules on the marketing of revolving credits in Spain following the March 2020 court ruling on usurious interest rates for revolving credit cards On 27 July, the Ministry of Economic and Digital Affairs published Order ETD/699/2020 of 24 July on revolving credit (the 'Order') which sets out new rules for increased transparency in the marketing of revolving credit by financial institutions. This Ord... NIST looks to shine a light on the ‘black box’ with its white paper on explainable AI There has been a growing focus over recent months, at governmental and regulatory levels, on the transparency and trustworthiness of AI solutions (see our previous blog). This is perhaps unsurprising given that AI is now widely used in making high-stake d... Brexit and exhaustion of IP rights: are UK exporters collateral damage? Exhaustion of IP rights has always been a controversial topic, and Brexit has kept the issue on centre stage. The issue? Price differences between different national markets. On the one hand, IP rights holders want to protect national markets, maintain th...