The EU Insolvency Directive marks a significant step towards greater harmonisation of insolvency laws across Member States. While the reforms introduce common standards in areas such as pre-pack sales, avoidance actions, director filing duties and creditor protections, the directive leaves considerable discretion to national legislatures.

In this episode, Jamie Murray-Jones is joined by colleagues across Freshfields’ European network Philippe Huntziger (France), Arturo Dauffi (Spain), Christian Paterlini (Germany) and Marjolein Bakker (the Netherlands) to discuss how the directive is expected to reshape their domestic insolvency regimes, where the most significant changes lie, and whether the reforms will lead to more predictable outcomes for investors and creditors across Europe

Stay tuned for more insights into the world of restructuring and thank you for listening to "No Worse Off."

Per il quarto episodio di Essential Antitrust – The Italian Voice, incontriamo Andrea Pezzoli, storico dirigente dell’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, con cui abbiamo ripercorso oltre trent’anni di antitrust in Italia, proiettandoci al contempo, verso le prossime sfide per la politica della concorrenza.

Dai casi che hanno segnato la storia dell’Autorità ai mercati digitali, dal controllo delle concentrazioni alla lotta ai cartelli, l’intervista, condotta da Gian Luca Zampa offre l’opportunità di riflettere su come si sia evoluto l’antitrust, il ruolo dell’AGCM e quale potrà essere il futuro dell’enforcement in Italia

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, has delivered the Autumn Budget 2026, promising to provide “breathing space” amid “global economic storms”.

With ‘military-style’ security protocols reportedly in place, there were far fewer pre-Budget leaks than in recent years. Consequently, although some key revenue-raising measures announced were largely expected, including the increase in the rate of the corporation tax surcharge on banking companies and an extension of the obligation for online marketplaces to collect VAT, many others were not. In the latter category, there is an unexpected revival of proposals to reform the UK sovereign immunity tax rules. These announcements, combined with the large volume of new consultations launched and policy updates published, mean the Budget was not quite the boring event some had expected.

In our latest podcast Paul Davison, Helen Buchanan, Peter Clements and Joe Williams from our London tax team discuss the business tax measures they found most eye-catching in the Autumn Budget 2026, including:

• headline tax revenue raising measures, including tax rises for the banking and gambling sectors, changes to the capital allowances regime (most significantly, a further reduction of writing down allowances for main rate expenditure) and increases in income tax rates on property and savings income;
• the launch of a consultation on a new sovereign tax status regime to be introduced from January 2029, principally designed to bring sovereigns’ returns from directly held UK real estate into the UK direct tax net for the first time;
• updates following the far-reaching consultation on modernising the tax treatment of distributions and capital repayments;
• various measures designed to improve tax collection and compliance, including confirmation of proposals requiring taxpayers to correct inaccurate tax returns and documents and the extension of the obligation on online marketplaces to collect VAT due on sales of goods by their customers; and
• confirmation that the foreign permanent establishment exemption will become mandatory.