News Bid to keep EU-UK online laws in line The government is working to ensure that UK and EU laws surrounding the digital single market remain compatible, following Brexit and the adoption of a proposed EU Directive. The proposed EU Directive on the Digital Single Market: Consumer Contract Rights is likely to be adopted by the end of this year or early 2018, according to government estimates. It concerns contracts for the supply and sale of digital content and services including cloud computing and downloads of digital music and films and covers transactions where personal data, rather than money, changes hands. Once adopted, as certain aspects of consumer contract law would essentially be the same across the EU, no member state could give greater or lesser protection than that set out in the directive. The European Scrutiny Committee, which considered the proposal on 15 March, believes the directive will reduce legal uncertainty and compliance costs for businesses selling digital content online and across borders, so boosting consumer confidence in such trade. The proposal is also legally significant and could have a widereaching impact in the UK, both on consumers and businesses, particularly if it were to substantially diverge from the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) 2015. As it is a directive, with a two-year grace period for implementation, it is unlikely that the UK will have to implement it formally before Brexit. However, the government is focused on reducing any divergence between it and the CRA to ease any future trading relationship between the EU and UK. To support a possible Partial General Approach at the Justice and Home Affairs Councilmeeting that was held on 28 and 29 March, the European Scrutiny Committee granted a scrutiny waiver, subject to certain conditions. This is designed to ensure that there is nothing inthe PGA that might make the UK-EU digital content trading relationship, post-Brexit, moredifficult for UK businesses. Pending further updates, the committee retainsthis Directive under scrutiny. new rules for door-to-door collection companies the collection has a commercial element, too, and that only a proportion of the profits from the sale of donated goods will make it to the charity. This guidance follows an advertising Standard agency (aSa) investigation in 2016, where a complaint about a clothing collection bag was upheld. The charity name was given more prominence than the collection company on the bag, so the ASA concluded that consumers were likely to be given the misleading impression that they were donating directly to charity. Companies need to make sure their bags are in line with the guidance by 2 June 2017. Istock.com/norrIE3699 Companies that participate in door-to-door charitable collections have been warned that they face being referred to trading standards if they dont make it clear how much of the donation reaches the charity. New guidance, published by the Committee of Advertising Practice, says it must be clear that Loan shark doctor ordered to pay back thousands A doctor was ordered to pay back 525,000 in proceeds of crime at Harrow Crown Court, in March, for running an illegal money-lending business worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Dr Arjan Damjibhai Savani was given a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, back in October 2016, for running an illegal money-lending business. Between January 2011 and his arrest in December 2015, Savani, a consultant at Central Middlesex and Northwick Park Hospitals in Harrow, London, ran the money-lending business from his places ofemployment. He was investigated by the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT), which works in partnership with Brent Council Trading Standards and the Metropolitan Police. In December 2015, when a warrant was executed, IMLT officers seized loan records demonstrating that the loan shark had received payments totalling 525,000. When interviewed under caution by IMLT officers, Savani admitted issuing loans ranging from 500 to 50,000 to his customers since 2011. He said he knew he was acting illegally, but was of the view that it would take too long to obtain a licence, which would have curtailed his money-making. An examination of Savanis records revealed that victims often had loans totalling thousands of pounds. Many belonged to the Filipino community, and also worked at the hospital over a prolonged period of time. Savani knew his victims could ill-afford the payments, and wasaware that the Filipino community places a great deal of importance on honour, and that the non-repayment of a debt would be shameful to the victim. Tony Quigley, from the England Illegal Money Lending Team, said: Another loan shark has been ordered to pay back for the crime that they once committed. We are continuing to crack down on illegal money lending and bringing those who break the law to justice. decline in food poisoning from chicken New figures show a 17 per cent decline in reports of people contracting campylobacter in 2016, according to several independent health bodies. Public Health England, Public Health Wales, Health Protection Scotland and the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland reported a decline in the number of positive laboratory tests in humans. The Food Standards Agency (FSA), which has worked with the food industry to reduce campylobacter in chickens, estimates there have been 100,000 fewer human cases of food poisoning from campylobacter overall. Achieving this reduction is estimated to save the economy more than 13m in terms of fewer sick days and NHS costs. Heather Hancock, of the FSA, said: We commend the efforts of the larger retailers, and the major processing plants that supply them, all of which have shown significant improvement. But there is more to be done and our focus now is on encouraging the smaller retailers and processors who generally havent met target levels to follow the lead of the major players and we are considering how we can best help them.