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Welcome to this week’s round-up of news, commentary and industry announcements that you may have missed from the past week. If you are looking for advice in relation to any of the issues mentioned, please do not hesitate to get in touch. In the news Broadcasters have agreed new coronavirus…

The Producers Alliance for Film and Television (Pact), the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, ViacomCBS, Sky, the Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-Demand Services (COBA) and others have together issued industry-wide guidance intended to enable a return to production for the television industry. The guidance document (available through Pact’s website here),…

Laura Murray, the stakeholder manager in Jeremy Corbyn’s office at the time, complained on Twitter about a retweet by TV presenter Rachel Riley.  The preliminary hearing on meaning was decided on the papers.  On the court’s reading, the meaning of Ms Murray’s tweet was that Ms Riley (a) publicly stated that…

In what is only the second harassment claim against the professional media to come to trial in England and Wales, the claimants, Mr and Mrs Sube, were unable to show that either News Group Newspapers Limited or Express Newspapers had engaged in a course of conduct against them that amounted…

On Wednesday, the Government offered clarification regarding holidays and furlough leave under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The full guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/holiday-entitlement-and-pay-during-coronavirus-covid-19 Key Points In the guidance the Government has confirmed  that employees (and workers paid through PAYE) will continue to accrue holiday whilst on  furlough leave.  This…

On 12 May, the Chancellor announced that the Government will continue the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (often simply referred to as the furlough scheme) until the end of October 2020. Until the end of July, the rules will not change significantly. Furloughed employees must still not do any work and…

In September 2019, the Duchess of Sussex commenced proceedings against the publishers of The Mail on Sunday in respect of certain articles that it had published, alleging that those articles constituted a misuse of private information; a breach of her data protection rights; and infringed copyright belonging to her.  At…

The applicable principles and guidance in relation to applications for extensions of time, which may result in the vacation of a hearing date in circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether a hearing should be adjourned if a case cannot be heard in person or whether a remote hearing…

The continued spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 and the unprecedented lockdown measures implemented by governments around the world raise significant challenges for businesses, and important questions about performance of contracts that are impacted by the ongoing crisis.  In this article, we look at two key contract principles, force majeure and…