Radar's 2020 roundup – everything you need to remember about the year we want to forget

2020 was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic which pushed everything else, even Brexit down the agenda. Given the circumstances, it's amazing how much happened in the commercial tech, digital, consumer and data privacy spaces. We provide our end of year roundup of EU and UK legislative and regulatory highlights and key cases covered by Radar's usual remit which includes:

Brexit

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and entered into a transition period which expires on 31 December this year. Although many of us expected Brexit to dominate everything this year, the global pandemic knocked it off the top spot. At the time of writing, the UK does not have a future relationship agreement with the EU although we can still hope that some sort of agreement will be reached at the last gasp. As we all know, without a trade agreement, the UK will begin to trade with the EU on WTO terms for goods and there could be a severe impact on all sectors.

The government has been working on the element of Brexit that it can control, producing primary and secondary legislation to ensure that UK and retained EU law continue to work smoothly, and publishing guidance for businesses. We wrote about some examples in November, including about the way CJEU law will be interpreted going forwards.

Due to the uncertainty around what, if any kind of deal we can expect, many businesses, particularly smaller ones, are unprepared for the impact of Brexit according to a recent report by the Institute for Government. 2021 could be challenging for many.

We have published a wide range of articles covering Brexit issues.

Consumer protection