Jay:
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our webinar on preparing for 2026: what your business needs to know. My name is Jay, and I’m a Senior Legal Consultant here at LegalVision. You’re in great hands today, as our speaker will be Robert Nay, our Co-Head of Legal. Before we begin, just a couple of housekeeping items:
- Yes, you will receive the recording and the slides in your email after the webinar.
- We do have a Q&A at the end, so please submit your questions at the bottom of your screen.
- We also have a brief feedback survey at the very end, which will take about 30 seconds. If you could kindly fill that out for us, we would appreciate it.
By viewing this webinar, you qualify to receive a complimentary consultation with LegalVision to discuss how we can help your business. To claim this consultation, please leave your details in the survey at the end, or you can always contact us through our website.
So, I’ll pass over to Rob now to go through the agenda. Thank you.
Rob:
Perfect. Thanks, Jay. Lovely to meet all of you out there. Today, we’re going to recap some key legal changes that have either already come into effect or are upcoming.
First, we’ll touch on privacy and some changes to the GDPR through a new act. We’ll talk about changes to Companies House verifications, and then we’ll discuss the DMCC Act, which is a significant change to UK consumer law. Finally, we’ll briefly touch on client contracts, whether you’re providing goods, services, or a SaaS platform. We’ll go over what’s really important in setting up your client contracts heading into the new year. As Jay mentioned, we’ve got a Q&A session at the end. We’ve already had a few questions submitted before the webinar, which is great. Keep them coming through, and I’ll try to get to as many of those as possible towards the end.
This checklist will help you identify areas in your business that may need further protection or assistance to ensure you are legally compliant.
Rob:
Perfect. Well, we’ll jump straight into it. I’ll try to keep this relatively high-level and practical, focusing on things you’ll want to be considering heading into the new year as a business. Let’s start off with data and privacy.
There’s a new act, the Data Use and Access Act 2025, which came into effect this year. Essentially, this isn’t new law, but it amends the GDPR (UK GDPR) and the PCR, which covers direct marketing. Some changes have already come into effect, with others transitioning between June 2025 and June 2026.
I’ll run through, at a high level, some of the key changes that specifically impact businesses, and what they mean for you operating a business.
The first one is in relation to automated decision-making. More and more businesses are using automated means like AI or other forms of technology to make decisions in their processes. The new act has broadened the scope to allow automated decision-making within your business, potentially enabling reliance on different legal bases, such as legitimate interest, to use these tools. This gives you a bit more flexibility, but it’s really important to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. You should provide information to people about any automated decisions involving their personal data and have mechanisms for human intervention in automated decision processes.
One key point to note: this doesn’t apply to special category data, such as health data or sensitive data regarding sexual orientation. This type of personal data requires a higher level of protection under the GDPR.
Some other changes include the penalties for breaches of the PCR, which now align with the GDPR. The act also introduces important changes to protect children’s personal data. Websites have started implementing age verification to protect children accessing online services.
Regarding cookies, the changes aren’t drastic, but a few exceptions have been added where consent is not required to use cookies. These include cookies used for statistical purposes, fraud prevention, and website functionality.
Rob:
Moving on to legal bases under the GDPR: When handling personal data, you must rely on a lawful basis, whether that’s for storing personal data, sharing it with third parties, or using it to carry out services.
One of the bases is legitimate interest, which involves a balancing test and a necessity test. The new act recognises certain categories of legitimate interest, such as direct marketing and group company data sharing for administrative purposes. This means that if you have entities in other jurisdictions, you can now use legitimate interest as the basis for processing personal data between them.
For data subject access requests (DSARs), individuals have the right to request what personal data a business holds about them and ask for it to be erased. The new act clarifies that you only need to conduct reasonable and proportionate searches in response to a DSAR.
Rob:
Now, moving on to UK company law: Changes have been introduced to prevent fraud and misuse of companies. A significant change, effective from November 18th, is that Companies House now has mandatory verification requirements.
This applies to individual directors, persons with significant control (PSCs), and limited liability partnership (LLP) members. Essentially, to carry out any activities on Companies House, you now need to be verified. This verification process started last month, so if you’re a director or PSC, I strongly encourage you to get started on this ASAP.
The legislation has also introduced a register of Authorized Corporate Services Providers (ACSPs). LegalVision is now an ACSP. So, you can either use the Companies House website tool or go through an ACSP to verify your identity and gain access to Companies House.
Rob:
The main reason for these changes is to prevent fraud and increase trust in the information on Companies House. The penalties for non-compliance are significant, so now is a great time to get your verification sorted before the new year.
Rob:
Moving on to consumer law: The DMCC Act has significantly changed consumer laws in the UK. This act aims to increase consumer protection and criminalise unfair commercial practices.
One important change is that it’s now an offence to commission or incentivise fake reviews. If you’re engaging influencers or others to promote your products, make sure they disclose that it’s a sponsored post. When it comes to reviews on your website, they must be genuine, and you should take reasonable steps to ensure this.
The act also addresses “drip pricing,” which is when a consumer sees a price change during the purchase process. Now, prices for products and services should be all-inclusive and clearly displayed early in the customer journey to avoid unexpected costs.
Finally, pyramid schemes are now considered unfair commercial practices under this act.
Rob:
Another key aspect of the DMCC Act is its impact on subscription contracts, particularly for SaaS businesses. These changes are not yet in effect, but we’re expecting guidance from the CMA in Spring 2026. The changes focus on providing consumers with more information before they sign up for subscriptions, such as payment amounts, frequency, trial periods, and automatic renewal mechanisms.
There’s also a 14-day cooling-off period, which applies to each annual renewal, not just the initial subscription. Consumers will need regular reminders about termination rights and renewal dates. Businesses will need to ensure that cancellation processes are clear and straightforward.
Rob:
Additionally, the act introduces significant fines for non-compliance, with penalties up to £300k or 10% of global turnover, whichever is greater.
Rob:
Before I pass it back to Jay, let’s briefly cover client contracts. The end of the year is a good time to ensure your contracts are up to date. Check agreements with co-founders, employment agreements, contractor agreements, and privacy policies. Given the recent changes to privacy law, it’s important to review your privacy policy to ensure it reflects the latest lawful bases for processing personal data.
Rob:
In terms of client contracts, it’s crucial to have provisions that limit liability. A liability cap should be in place, typically tied to a percentage of the contract value. Make sure your contracts exclude consequential losses like loss of profit, reputation, or goodwill. If you’re a data processor under the GDPR, ensure that a data processing agreement is properly linked to your client agreements.
Finally, make sure your contracts are clear and easy to read, especially for B2C contracts, as transparency requirements are key.
Jay:
Thank you so much, Rob. That was fantastic. This concludes the main part of our webinar today. I hope you found it useful. Do check out the QR code on your screen, where you can access a useful guide checklist. We have many more guides available on our website.
We also run webinars regularly, usually twice a month. Our next one is on the 12th of February at 11 am, covering the topic “Is Franchising Right for You?” If you’re looking to expand your business in 2026, this could be a great one for you.
Jay:
I’ll now briefly tell you about LegalVision’s membership. By becoming a member, your business gets unlimited access to a full team of specialist lawyers to support all your business-as-usual legal needs. You can think of it as having an in-house legal team at a fraction of the cost.
As a member, you’ll have access to unlimited document drafting, reviewing, amending, and consultations. We also assist with trademarks and more. LegalVision’s membership helps take care of your legal work so you can focus on running your business.
If you’re part of an in-house team, we offer a dedicated service for your high-volume business-as-usual legal tasks.
Jay:
To learn more about the membership or desk extension, you can request a free consultation when the survey appears at the end of the webinar. Please take a moment to answer the poll question that will pop up now.
Now, I’ll hand it back over to Rob to answer all your questions. If you haven’t already, please submit them in the Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. Thank you, everyone.
Rob:
Thanks, Jay. I’ve had quite a few questions come in, which is exciting. There are a couple of specific questions we’ll try to address after the webinar.
The first question is: What legal aspects should I consider in a contractor agreement with an employee?
Well, the first thing to determine is the person’s employment status. Are they self-employed, a contractor, or an employee?
Some key aspects to consider include whether it’s a framework agreement, whether the contractor has insurance, and if the contract limits their liability. Also, ensure that they’re complying with applicable laws and that there are warranties in place. If you’re a data processor, a data processing agreement should be in place.
Rob:
There’s also a question about AI and whether there are any AI-specific legislative changes coming. While the EU has introduced the EU AI Act, UK businesses operating in the EU will need to comply. As for the UK, there’s no specific legislation yet, but the changes to automated decision-making discussed earlier would be relevant for businesses using AI in that context.
Rob:
Finally, regarding subscription contract rules, these changes will come into force next year. We’re still awaiting further guidance from the CMA, but the focus is on providing consumers with more information about subscription contracts and ensuring transparency around automatic renewals.
Rob:
I believe that covers most of the questions today. If you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to reach out after the webinar.
Jay:
Thanks, Rob. That was great. We’re out of time today, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Apologies if we didn’t get to your question, but as Rob mentioned, you can submit it in the survey, and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
Take advantage of the complimentary legal health check. It’s typically 30 to 45 minutes, where we understand your business and provide recommendations. We look forward to seeing you at our next webinar.
Thank you again, and take care.
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