Retail Snapshot: 2022 In View

The International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) will be a UK-specific contractual mechanism for transferring personal data outside of the UK (to replace the EU standard contractual clauses post Brexit). This is due March 21, 2022. In short, relevant contracts from 21 March will need to incorporate the IDTA or Addendum, and contracts signed on or before 21 September 2022 will need to be updated following a proposed grace period of 2 years. As such, by March 2024 all businesses will need to use these UK transfer mechanisms.

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Provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 protecting commercial tenants from eviction and being sued for rent arrears by their landlords are due to expire on 25 March 2022.

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The legislation guides landlord and tenant negotiations in respect of rent arrears accrued under business tenancies adversely affected by COVID-19. The legislation comes into force on 24 March 2022.

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The regulations come fully into force in March and update existing UK anti-money laundering legislation to implement changes in the EU anti-money laundering framework. The changes largely relate to the UK’s register of express trusts, as well as banking, discrepancy reporting, and customer due diligence on listed companies.

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This Bill seeks to amend the Companies Act 2006 such that qualifying companies be required to appoint at least one worker representative director to the board of the company. The aim of the provision is to bring the perspective of a worker to the boardroom rather than to directly represent the interests of the company’s workers.

Announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget, the NLW increases are set to impact every age band, from apprentices to individuals aged 23 and over. In total, the annual gross earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW will have increased by over £5,000 since its introduction in April 2016.

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The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 (“New Calorie Regulations”) add requirements about calorie information for ‘food suitable for immediate consumption’ from 6 April 2022. Very broadly, from this date the requirement to display nutritional value will apply to food:

• which is suitable for immediate consumption, and is
• not ‘pre-packed’ food

Businesses with 250 employees or more who sell food suitable for ‘immediate consumption’ will have to display the energy content, size of portion to which the energy content relates, and a calorie statement, for most items of food. Fast food outlets, restaurants, specialist food stores, domestic transport businesses, cafés, and takeaways (including those within supermarkets, departments stores and entertainment venues) will be impacted. Third-party food delivery apps will also be affected by having to display calorie information remotely as part of the description of each item of food. Certain food and types of organisations are exempt from the requirements. Fixed penalty notices may be issued for non-compliance.

Any plastic packaging items manufactured in or imported into (either as filled product or otherwise) the UK shall be taxable under the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) where that packaging contains less than 30% recycled plastic. The tax will be charged at a rate of £200 per tonne.

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Private and voluntary sector organisations with a headcount of 250 or more employees as of 5 April 2021 must report and publish gender pay gap information by 5 April 2022.

Reforms will give greater enforcement powers to the union’s Certification Officer, bringing their function in line with other regulators. The Officer will be able to investigate a union or employers’ association where there is concern of a breach of the organisation’s statutory duties.

The Government will implement a 1.25% increase in National Insurance Contributions for working age employees to be ringfenced to fund investment in health and social care. This levy will be formally separated out to become a separate tax on earned income from April 2023.

The 2022 Finance Bill is likely to have wide-ranging implications, including income tax basis period reform, the requirement for large businesses to notify HMRC when they take an uncertain tax position, and an increase in Normal Minimum Pension Age (NMPA) from 55 to 57 (to be implemented April 2028).

Eligible properties will receive a 50% business rates relief in 2022/23, up to a per business cap of £110,000. The relief will also apply to property in the hospitality and leisure sectors. Alongside the relief measures, the Government has decided to maintain the freeze on the business rates multiplier for a second year, from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023, keeping the multipliers at 49.9p and 51.2p respectively.

The proposed changes, set to be implemented in April 2022, would require employees in England, Scotland and Wales to ensure that appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided to employees and workers who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety while at work. Currently, employers only have a duty to their ‘employees’ in respect of PPE, therefore this has ability to widen the scope of obligations placed on businesses to which this applies.

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Current EU rules set out in the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) are due to expire on 31 May 2022. The EU Commission hopes to have revised rules in place by this date, ensuring EU antitrust law remains up to date in light of the significant economic changes that have taken place since adopting the VBER in 2010.

The review forms part of the EU’s Omnibus Directive which seeks to strengthen the enforcement of EU consumer law and comes into force 28 May 2022. While the UK is no longer an EU Member State, UK businesses selling to consumers in the EU will need to comply with the new rules.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), part of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which regulates advertising across all forms of media in the UK, is consulting on advertising zero % alcohol products. The proposed reforms call for transparency and clarity on the ABV content of such products as well as greater consideration of the significance of alcohol content to some consumers, even if less than 0.5% ABV.

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From 1 October 2022, retailers of a certain size and minimum floor area, will be prohibited from placing food and drinks with a high fat, sugar and salt (“HFSS”) content in certain instore and online locations. The HFSS legislation will also prohibit retailers from putting HFSS products on offer, such as buy-one-get-one-free or two-for-the-price-of-one. Failure to comply could result in improvement notices being issued.

After 31 December 2022, previously accepted product safety markings, such as the CE mark used during the UK’s membership of the EU, shall be replaced by the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking.

The Bill would see the establishment of an environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, and would give the Government powers to set national targets for air quality, water pollution and waste.

The consultation sought to gather evidence from businesses and individuals with respect to how the UK can modernise consumer protection and product safety frameworks. A response, and any resulting legislative proposals, is to be expected at some point in 2022.

Shop workers may already opt out of working Sundays, for example on family or religious grounds. In 2022, the Government is due to extend these rights to include ‘additional hours’, being contractual hours which employees can be asked to work in excess of their normal hours.

A consultation presented by BEIS in July 2021 on Reforming Competition and Consumer Policy, in particular, focused on three areas: competition policy, consumer rights, and consumer law enforcement.

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