I read that a leading football club and other companies were recently condemned for a cartel in which they fixed the price of their shirts. After the cartel was broken up by the Office of Fair Trading, it seems the price of some England football shirts fell from £39.99 to £25. If I paid £40 for a football shirt when I should have paid £25 can I now get my money back?
In principle, yes. And with interest. The Competition Act 1998 prohibits agreements restrictive of competition (cartels). Parties to a cartel are subject to fines such as those imposed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in relation to football shirts. However, victims can also recover compensation for breach of statutory duty (a tort or civil wrong). The Competition Act Section 47 introduces procedures whereby they can recover this via the tribunal once the companies’ appeal has been dealt with. Under the tribunal’s rules they have two years to do this. Under Section 47B certain designated consumer bodies can bring an American-style class action on behalf of consumers without the need for an expensive formal claim by each victim. As yet there are no designated bodies but the Consumers’ Association (www.which.net) has applied and should soon be designated by statutory instrument. Contact them with the details of your claim and tell your friends. There may of course be thousands of such claims, hence the need for this class action.
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My wife and I are 70. Three years ago we transferred our house (bought in 1990) into our names and those of our son and daughter-in-law as tenants in common. We all live together as a joint family with their two minor children. Despite sharing the household expenses, we have kept no record as to who paid what. Will we be affected by inheritance tax because we live here, despite having given away our one half?
As the arrangement is that each quarter owner occupies only a quarter of the house this will not be caught by the gift with reservation of benefit rules, which continue to treat the house as yours for inheritance tax purposes. Indeed it ought to be just the sort of arrangement that tax law should encourage, bringing families together under one roof. As bona fide lifetime gifts your two gifts are potentially exempt transfers, becoming exempt after seven years (ie, four years from now) It is certainly best to keep records of expenditure on the house but it does not necessarily have to be equal as you can use your annual exemption (£3,000 a year) to subsidise your son’s share of the costs.
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Does copyright extend to a book published by a corporate body, say, a church, and how long does it last?
Copyright arises automatically when the work is recorded. The first owner is usually the author (or authors jointly) but if the work to written by a church employee in the course of his duties, copyright belongs to the church. If it is written by non-employees, for example volunteers, they remain the owners unless they assigned copyright by signed written instrument to the church. Whoever might be owner, the duration is determined by the life of the author plus 70 years. If the author is unidentifiable it is 70 years from publication.
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We regret that we cannot reply to individual queries. The above commentary must not be taken as legal advice; readers should consult a solicitor. Readers can e-mail queries to tde@easynet.co.uk