It has been almost 6 months since the GDPR regime came into effect, and early signs would suggest that the invoice finance industry has adapted well to the new requirements.
As expected there was something of a last-minute rush to ensure compliance, but fears were perhaps eased by helpful comments from the Information Commissioner such as she made on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 25 May 2018:
“We are not looking for perfection. We do not have thousands of inspectors going out and checking people’s homework. What we do have are millions of people that have new rights and they can make a complaint against a company to our office”.
As long ago as late 2014 the Government indicated its intention to outlaw prohibitions of assignment in commercial contracts in an attempt to support the invoice finance industry as a key provider of alternative finance to UK SMEs.
We reported in the Winter 2017 edition of the Briefing that we had been informed by BEIS that they were content with a revised form of the Business Contract Terms (Restrictions on Assignment of Receivables) Regulations, which were first proposed as long ago as December 2014.
Whatever might eventually happen with Brexit, most informed observers will have recently had cause to reflect upon the differential between data protection law in the European Union and that in other advanced jurisdictions such as the US. The recent publicity involving Facebook has emphasised the fact that European Union law is light-years ahead of other mature jurisdictions in this respect.
Invoice financiers are gearing up for the introduction of the GDPR which will introduce significant reforms to data protection law, and are keenly interested in the outcome of discussions which are likely between UK Finance and the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).
It was almost 3 years ago in December 2014 when the Government announced its intention to bring forward legislation outlawing bans on assignment in commercial contracts.
Following an extensive consultation process since 2009 the final version of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims as dictated by the Ministry of Justice came into force on 1 October 2017.
There has been much debate and comment amongst invoice financiers and others following the recent landmark decision of the High Court in BHL v Leumi ABL Ltd [2017] EWHC 1871 (QB), but we have to point out that the decision did not come as a surprise to everyone.
A recent case between a foreign bank and BP Oil as assignor on somewhat unusual facts required the court to examine the principles of assignment of contract rights, and resulted in a very expensive lesson for the assignor.
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