The High Court of England and Wales has recently decided that a contract can, in principle, be made in two separate jurisdictions at the same time if the contract does not include choice of law and jurisdiction clauses. In this situation, either party could seek to enforce the contract in…
Sourcing Speak
Repeal of Third Party Harassment – Are Employers Safe from Claims?
As part of its UK Employment Law Review in 2012, the UK Government announced that it intended to remove the third-party harassment liability provision from section 40(2) of the Equality Act 2010. This provision was repealed on 1 October 2013. This post considers the impact of the repeal and whether…
Does a Service Provider Have a Lien Over Customer Data?
On 19 November, Datateam won permission to appeal from an unreported decision of District Judge Bell sitting in the Reigate County Court on 12 June. The facts of the case, which related to unpaid invoices for database maintenance services, are not of interest except to say that the services agreement…
What Does the SOX Say?
Procurement says SAS70; Finance says SSAE 16; Audit says SOC 2; IT says ISO27001; Supplier says pay, pay, pay. But there’s one fact That no one knows . . . WHAT DOES THE SOX SAY? Any negotiation for cloud and outsourced services undoubtedly ends up in a debate over what…
Beware of Mixing IT Assets and IT Managed Services
In the early days of outsourcing IT as a managed service, it was not at all unusual for a managed services price to be all inclusive of assets, services and facilities. That bundle of services and assets usually came with a “black box” style pricing that was devoid of transparency…
New EU Cookie Guidance: Crumbs of comfort or confusion?
As many who have struggled to find a clear way to comply will know, an important change to the EU E-Privacy Directive (implemented by many EU states late 2011/2012) meant that, in summary, websites which target/monitor/profile Europeans have been obliged to seek consent to use cookies via an opt in…
Does this mean I get a refund? Massachusetts Repeals Sales and Use Tax on Computer and Software Services
We previously reported on the Massachusetts computer services tax that became effective on July 31st after the legislature overturned Governor Deval Patrick’s veto of An Act Relative to Transportation Finance. Facing strong opposition from the state’s technology sector the Massachusetts legislature retroactively repealed the tax by passing An Act Repealing…
Obamacare HealthCare.gov Issues Serve as a Reminder to Embrace Best Practices in Software Development and Integration Projects
October 1st marked the beginning of open enrollment for the federal and state health care exchanges (“Exchanges”) created to comply with the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) of 2010, commonly referred to as Obamacare. The creation of the state and federal exchanges was and is a massive undertaking, involving the “unprecedented…
Contract Issues to Consider if Offshore Services are in your Software as a Service (SAAS) or Cloud Agreement
Customers increasingly are taking advantage of Software as a Service (SAAS) and other cloud-based solutions available in the marketplace. There are of course many legal and commercial issues that customers should consider when evaluating contracts provided by suppliers of these solutions. This post focuses specifically on issues arising when SAAS…
TUPE UPDATE: UK Government publishes its Response to the Consultation
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) is in the spotlight as part of the UK Government’s Employment Law Review. Launched in 2011, the purpose of the review is to reform employment law in order to achieve a fair, effective and flexible labour market in the UK[1].…