‘In its first substantive output since being announced a year ago, the LawTech Delivery Panel last week posted good news for anyone developing, or working with, products based on blockchain encryption technology.’
Law Society's Gazette, 25th November 2019
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘A UK Government-backed task force has reviewed the status of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts under the existing law. In a new Legal Statement, they offer some welcome clarity to these evolving technologies.’
Technology Law Update, 19th November 2019
Source: www.technology-law-blog.co.uk
‘Blockchain and smart contracts were given a major boost towards becoming a standard method for securely storing and transferring cryptoassets yesterday, when the expert panel charged with giving the technology legal certainty decided they should be treated in principal as property.’
Legal Futures, 19th November 2019
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘In the latest Henry Brooke Lecture (12th November, hosted by BAILII and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer), Supreme Court Justice Lord Sales warned that the growing role of algorithms and artificial intelligence in decision making poses significant legal problems.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 18th November 2019
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Only 19% of home buyers use online conveyancers, despite the dominance of online searches as a way of finding property, a report has found.’
Legal Futures, 19th November 2019
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Speech by Sir Geoffrey Vos, The Chancellor of the High Court: the annual COMBAR lecture.’
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, 13th November 2019
Source: www.judiciary.uk
‘The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Related Harm (GRH APPG) said current legislation has its limitations and that new laws should be introduced and “focus on prevention of harm and retrospective concerns” and further “assess the kind of industry we would like to have in the future”.’
OUT-LAW.com, 7th November 2019
Source: www.pinsentmasons.com
‘The buzz around distributed ledger technology (DLT), including blockchain, is much more than hype and the tech will eventually transform conveyancing and probate, an academic specialising in innovation has indicated.’
Legal Futures, 24th October 2019
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘A payments provider that breached an order to stop the integration of its UK business with a rival until a full merger investigation could be carried out has been fined £250,000 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).’
OUT-LAW.com, 26th September 2019
Source: www.pinsentmasons.com
‘Electronic signatures can be used to execute documents, including where there is a statutory requirement for a signature, the Law Commission has today confirmed. This means that, in most cases, electronic signatures can be used as a viable alternative to handwritten ones.’
Law Commission, 4th September 2019
Source: www.lawcom.gov.uk
‘A 20-month investigation by the Commission into electronic signatures has ruled they are a legally viable alternative to handwritten ones including on deeds from trust documents to powers of attorney, commercial deals, personal financial transactions and across Government.’
Daily Telegraph, 3rd September 2019
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘A system that allows problem gamblers to block themselves from all UK betting websites in one go has finally been approved by the industry regulator, 18 months after it was supposed to be ready, the Guardian understands.’
The Guardian, 1st September 2019
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A judge has ordered the confiscation of bitcoin worth more than £900,000 from a jailed hacker in the first case of its kind for the Metropolitan police.’
The Guardian, 23rd August 2019
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A family lawyer who created an online divorce service did so to avoid regulation and not share the fees generated with his law firm, a tribunal has found in striking him off.’
Legal Futures, 22nd August 2019
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Facebook’s past privacy breaches suggest financial information might not be safe if it launches cryptocurrency, the Information Commissioner has warned.’
Daily Telegraph, 5th August 2019
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘An Airbnb host who rented out his central London council flat to tourists has been fined £100,000 and evicted.’
BBC News, 29th July 2019
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
The UK’s data privacy regulator, the ICO, has started issuing notices of intention to fine data controllers under the GDPR for data breaches. The maximum fine the ICO can impose for a breach of data protection laws increased from £500k under the Data Protection Act 1998 to €20m or 4% of global annual turnover, whichever is greater, under GDPR. GDPR also introduced stronger data breach reporting and notification requirements.
Technology Law Update, 10th July 2019
Source: www.technology-law-blog.co.uk
‘The UK’s markets regulator has proposed a ban on financial instruments linked to digital “cryptocurrencies” such as Bitcoin, warning that such products could cause huge losses for retail consumers unlikely to understand their risks or value.’
The Guardian, 3rd July 2019
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘One of the great frustrations of reading about blockchain is that many of those who set themselves the task of explaining it tell you what they believe it does, rather than explaining what it is, and often what they think it does is received wisdom, leading their expositions to founder on the Scylla of over-simplification. Others, who do understand what it is, often presume on the part of a general readership a level of familiarity with what might appear to be arcane technical concepts which such a readership does not possess: anyone for Byzantine Fault Tolerance? Their expositions thus founder on the Charybdis of incomprehensibility to all but fellow experts. Neither approach really facilitates a consideration of the benefits nor an appreciation of the risks involved in the use of blockchain technology.’
Tanfield Chambers, 11th March 2019
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘A new code of ethics should govern the removal of harmful content from the internet and there should be “large fines” for technology companies that fail to comply with it, a prominent group of MPs has said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 19th February 2019
Source: www.out-law.com
© Inner Temple Library 2019