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Lara Burch

Lara Burch

Partner

Email Lara

T: +44 117 917 4268

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Catherine Wolfenden

Catherine Wolfenden

Partner

Bristol

Email Catherine

T: +44 117 917 3600

Publications

15 Apr 2013

OFT's investigation of UK free to play games and children: a step into the unknown?

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading has announced an investigation into “whether children are being unfairly pressured or encouraged to pay for additional content in 'free' web and app-based games”. The investigation, the first of its kind by a consumer protection regulator in the EU, has potentially wide ramifications for the mobile, social and online games business in the UK and worldwide.

8 Mar 2013

Regulatory Timeline 2013-2014: Consumer Protection

23 Jan 2013

The Consumer Rights Directive: Practical implications for online businesses

The Consumer Rights Directive aims to simplify and harmonise consumer legislation throughout the EU to increase certainty, consumer protection and confidence and also to facilitate trade.  For many, this means some future changes to some familiar legislation.

Consumer Regulation

Consumer protection legislation needn’t get in the way of your business. Our commercial insight means that we can help you get it right and create value for your business.

Our team of lawyers knows that clients don’t just want a statement of the law on consumer rights, they want to know how they can work within the rules and still achieve what they need to achieve.

We have a breadth of expertise that covers "unfair trading" practices, data protection, product liability, niche areas like energy regulation, and plenty more besides. We can handle product issues from birth to maturity, from the manufacturing stage through to distance selling and online retailing.

The volumes of consumer regulation continue to grow: not just the underlying legislation, like the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, the Electronic Commerce Regulations, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Practices Regulations, the Distance Selling Regulations and the Doorstep Selling Regulations, but also industry-specific regulations and the guidance issued by industry regulators. We know the issues and we know how to manage them.

Osborne Clarke’s deep sector knowledge is what makes us different. We advise household name clients across a range of sectors, including utilities and energy, transport, healthcare, technology (including mobile telecoms, computer and games consoles), financial services, luxury goods, retail and music download.

We can guide you through the rules, so that you can focus on your core business, not legal detail. And if your business is international, our guidance extends across our European alliance and international best friend firms to give you the full picture.

OsborneClarke (Osborne Clarke)
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OsborneClarke (Osborne Clarke)
Amazing! Well done to all involved RT @thelawsociety: London #legalwalk raises over 575k for free legal advice. http://t.co/4I9ltls6vN