Publication
Keeping your dawn raid guidance current
Unannounced inspections or ‘dawn raids’ are used by antitrust authorities to obtain evidence when there are suspicions that individuals or businesses have infringed the antitrust rules.
United Kingdom | Publication | June 2023
This judgment, which confirms that certain rules of a contracted-out scheme cannot be altered without the statutory actuarial confirmation having been obtained and that non-compliant alterations are void, is potentially impactful.
Up until now common practice has been for schemes to have discussed the requirement for certification ahead of making scheme changes. The starting point was “Do the changes affect contracted out rights?”. Schemes, together with their advisers, including the scheme actuary, will have carefully considered this question together with the requirement for confirmation, not as a simple matter of a “must have”. The judgment therefore brings usual processes and practices into question and it does not simply speak to cases where s37 confirmations were forgotten or where it can be inferred from the lack of evidence that no confirmation was obtained.
It is possible that amendments will have been made in good faith on the basis that no actuarial confirmation was required, for example where the changes impacted the future or where the contracted-out rights were not adversely impacted. The judgment is clear that confirmations should have been sought in such situations.
It is entirely possible that the case will be appealed, so there may be a further delay in obtaining clarity on these important issues for schemes. That may be very inconvenient for schemes which are in the process of restructurings, particularly total buy-ins.
Publication
Unannounced inspections or ‘dawn raids’ are used by antitrust authorities to obtain evidence when there are suspicions that individuals or businesses have infringed the antitrust rules.
Publication
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, or FSR, is intended to prevent or remedy distortions of the EU internal market caused by “foreign” – meaning non-EU – subsidies benefitting companies active in the EU.
Publication
In July 2024, the English High Court handed down a judgment on whether or not the insurers under a charterer’s liability policy were obliged to indemnify third parties, where the insured went insolvent and had not paid the underlying claim to the third parties.
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