Member Article

Tees Valley Brexit experts urge businesses to act now

Endeavour Partnership’s team of Brexit experts are urging businesses to make sure they’re prepared for the UK’s exit from the EU on March 29th next year.

It’s thought a transition period could last until December 2020 but there is now a possibility of a no-deal Brexit in which the UK leaves the EU abruptly next March.

Endeavour Partnership is advising businesses that have not done so already to carry out a Brexit assurance process to identify all Brexit-related risks and take steps to prevent them.

Paul Bury, managing partner at Endeavour Partnership, is advising businesses across the Tees Valley to consider the following key commercial issues: -

1. Ability to continue to operate in key markets Ensure you are legally permitted to continue to operate in the same markets after Brexit, both within the EU and with other countries outside the EU.
2. Corporate restructuring A business may need to establish a new legal presence or move operations to continue operating in key markets.
3. Contractual consequences The Brexit assurance process should be designed to identify specific provisions of existing contracts and standard terms and conditions that need to be fixed as a result of Brexit, such as transferring personal data to the UK which will be outside of the EU and GDPR rules, the trademark and other intellectual property and the territorial scope of a restrictive covenants that covers the EU (of which the UK will no longer be a part).
4. Intellectual property and information technology In the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, different rights will be affected in different ways- including registered trademarks and designs that cover the whole EU which will no longer have force in the UK in the absence of agreement, so will require separate UK protection.
5. Data Protection All businesses should be aware of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that were introduced in May. Brexit will have no impact on the application of GDPR in the UK. However, if there is a ‘no deal’ Brexit, it is likely that businesses in the UK will be in the same position as businesses in, for example, the United States, who have to be able to actually prove that they are GDPR compliant before they can share data with the EU member counties.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Addison Associates .