Filed under: IT, Legal — Alan @ 8:52 am
SMEs are facing large penalties for failing to follow new procedures that were set in place to protect the credit card details of their customers.
The rules state that all businesses must be able to prove that debit and credit details are kept in a central location that is safe from fraud, such as in an approved electronic database.
However, most small business owners say that they would be happy to follow the rules, if there was more information about how to regulate or implement an appropriate system.
SMEs that are in violation of the rule must pay fines that are around a few pence for every transaction that comes through their store. This of course adds up to a much larger amount by the close of the year.
The main complaint is that the fines are not properly being assessed, with some banks failing to flag the fines, and other businesses facing fines even though they are in compliance with the new regulations.
National chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses John Wright stated that the new measures were put in place to help improve data security but that small businesses were not considered when they were first introduced.
Even more disturbing perhaps is the fact that the banks that provide processing services to UK businesses have full discretion over how much they want to charge SMEs for breaking the rules. Among the banks in the UK that asses fines are Lloyds, RBS, and HBOS.
Filed under: Legal — Alan @ 8:07 am
Over 75% of businesses in Britain do not have a written policy about how employees with disabilities should be handled.
Research from Remploy and ComRes found that only eight percent of all SMEs that do not currently employ disabled people have any interest about learning if disabled people could work at their companies.
Since SMEs make up about 99% of all the UK businesses the research is disappointing for those who may have learning disabilities or mental health issues since it shows that SMEs are not likely to employ them.
Today only an estimated one out of every five SMEs will hire a disabled person, but out of those about two thirds reported they would not hire someone with mental health issues or a learning disability.
Two thirds of the employers in the survey reported that they do not need support on the legal ramifications of the disabled laws, and also do not need any information about hiring people with disabilities. Out of these only half even knew the provisions outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act.
Chief executive of Remploy, Tim Matthews, stated that in general businesses are usually worried about the reliability of people with disabilities versus “normal” workers but that in his experience with Remploy those with disabilities are often more likely to take fewer days off work and stay at their jobs longer.
He continued to say that the amount of people with disabilities who currently hold a job is scandalous when compared to how many people would like to have a job.
Filed under: Legal — Alan @ 6:30 am
ITV shares took a fall yesterday when the Competition Commission found that the set of advertisers’ rules that were first placed on the company in 2003 should remain in place.
The commission found that while advertisers may be able to build campaigns with other broadcasters, the channel has too much dominance to be considered part of a level competitive playing field.
The main issue at stake was the Act rights renewal system which ranks the prices of advertising on ITV by the amount of viewers. The system was formed for use by ITV when the broadcaster was originally formed to keep it from abusing its power as a dominant player in the market.
The good news for ITV is that the commission did state that ‘some variations’ of the current system may be open for change such as a proposal to widen what is classified as ITV1 and the inclusion of ITV1 high definition channels.
Additionally, the commission is also looking at the best way to determine competition matters by splitting air time into normal viewing audiences and special viewing audiences such as when a sports programme is being broadcast or a major entertainment show such as X Factor. Its final decision will be released by the end of 2009.
In the mean time, ITV has also been engaged in its own battle to keep consumers as they are leaving to choose digital channel broadcasting and the internet as an advertising competitor.
Since 2007 ITV has watched its shares decrease from 100p down to 50p last night when word of the decision started to float around.
Media analyst stockbroker Paul Richards of Numis Securities said that it was expected that the commission would not remove the CRR system but that the wording of the statement of the commission was much harsher than most people expected to hear at this stage in the decision making process.
