Huntley Legal's Blog

You probably know that the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) take effect in May 2018. But you may not know that the European Parliament has given the go-ahead to change E-privacy laws at the same time.

The key themes are about improving security and confidence, and include controls on tracking technology, including cookies. You could call them "quite educational".

When someone else sells your products for you, it's important to understand what flavour of agreement you have with them, clearly defining whether they are a distributor/reseller or an agent.

Your agreement must be consistent with the reality, because if you have a dispute over it, the courts will look at the substance of the agreement and not the name of it.

When you sell products through a distributor or reseller, the distributor is your direct customer. They buy your goods and sell them on to the end user (the ultimate customer). The distributor does deals on their own behalf, not for you.

As explained in our recent article, lawfulness is one of the key principles of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDRP).

The other principles tie all permitted processing to a lawful ground, and don't allow you to process personal data beyond that.

So, you might be wondering precisely what grounds are lawful for collecting and processing personal data.

Essentially, there are two lawful grounds, one of which has four sub-parts.

The new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into UK law on 25 May 2018. (This will be done by the enactment of the Data Protection Bill which will also repeal the Data Protection Act 1988.)

GDPR is based on six key principles, which replace the eight principles of the current Act.

It's important that you understand them, as they guide the way you need to collect and process data under the GDPR.

GDPR is coming!

GDPR stands for the new General Data Protection Regulations which come into force on 25 May 2018 and potentially have a massive impact on all businesses.

Here's the next in our series of articles to help you prepare for GDPR, covering who has obligations under GDPR, what is defined as personal data, and who is a data subject.

These topics may seem basic, but are very important because the changes in the reach of the new regulations give new obligations to businesses who currently have no need to have a data protection registration. In fact, they change and expand the way that all businesses need to handle their data, and indeed, what data they can handle.

If you sell via your own agents, you can set whatever price you please. Each buyer is your direct customer, and you have to provide the after-sales services to them. This business model gives you direct control but more costs and risks.

If you sell via resellers and distributors, then you are NOT allowed to set the reseller's price. If you do, it's called Retail Price Maintenance ­– and it's an offence.

The trouble is that customers are unlikely to know whether they are buying from an agent or a reseller.

As you may know, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are coming into force on 25 May 2018.

The aim is to harmonise the legislation and make it stronger in order to keep up with the advance of big data and the new reality of how data is processed and used.

The key principles about privacy and protection for individuals don't change under the new laws, but the benchmark for compliance is going up, the consequences of non-compliance are harsher, and individuals are gaining extra rights.

These changes are quite important and will have significant impact throughout the system.

So you are part of a Limited Liability Partnership, and you want to leave. However, it's not always as straightforward as you might think. The role is much the same as it is for a director/shareholder in a company, but the Companies Act lays out much more detail than the LLP Act does.

Before you discuss your proposed departure with your fellow LLP members, it is worth knowing the circumstances under which you can leave, and the financial obligations you are under.

Here are some of the things to check, so you are aware how best to handle the situation...

A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is a type of corporate body which combines the features of an unlimited partnership and a limited company. It was first established as a type of legal entity under the LLP Act 2000.

An LLP is treated as a legal entity in the same way that a limited company is, but in other ways LLPs are more flexible. Members are taxed as partners whilst still being protected by a limit on their personal liability.

There used to be a rule that an unlimited partnership had less than 20 members. However, that rule was scrapped many years ago (which allowed for the huge expansion of many professional firms). However, since the LLP has been an option as a business vehicle few people would consider an old style unlimited partnership an attractive alternative. Where there is a preference (for reasons of style or tax) for a partnership rather than a company, an LLP is now the norm.

After running a training session, Sarah gave her client online access to the course materials under an agreement that it was for his personal use only. Over the next few weeks, he logged in from 20 different PCs on 20 different occasions, and Sarah realised they were unofficially sharing her materials with their colleagues. She has now had to close her client's account.

Any agreement has to make clear what's included, how many users are entitled to access the product or service, and what will happen if the agreement is broken.

With software, there are three types of licence: