Hi, Here is your weekly round-up of highlights from OUT-LAW News. As always, click the links to read the full stories of the summaries below or see these and many other stories from this week's news at http://www.out-law.com/page-5951. You can also access our archive of weekly emails at http://www.out-law.com/page-7793. The OUT-LAW Team ***The Sourcing Summit*** London, 18th & 19th November 2008: Marketforce is hosting The Sourcing Summit at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, a 2 day conference. See: http://www.marketforce.eu.com/sourcing/ ***Free OUT-LAW Breakfast Seminars*** London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh October 2008: Making your contract work: pitfalls and best practices November 2008: Transferring data: the information security issues See: http://www.out-law.com/page-6024 ***This week's highlights from OUT-LAW News*** 1. European Commission overhauls online shopping laws The European Commission wants to create an over-arching consumer protection law which it claims will cut costs and red tape for internet retailers. The proposed Consumer Rights Directive would replace four existing EU directives. 09/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9495 2. Online coupons should be tightly controlled, says marketing body Retailers should ensure that digital money-off coupons are unique and linked to individual customers to avoid the losses that mass duplication of the vouchers could bring, the sales promotion industry body has said. 07/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9492 3. Average privacy policy takes 10 minutes to read, research finds Website privacy policies take on average 10 minutes to read and sometimes run into thousands of words, researchers have found. While some are short, others would take over half an hour to read, researchers said. 06/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9490 4. How to survive the credit crunch: resuscitate your share plans OPINION: In the current economic downturn, share plans might seem less than attractive as a way for companies to motivate their staff. But despite a weak stock market, share plans can be made to work, without having to pay cash incentives. 06/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9487 5. Girls Aloud murder fantasy prompts arrest and charge A man has been arrested and charged over a blog post detailing the imaginary kidnap, torture and murder of the members of Girls Aloud. He has been charged with the publishing of an obscene article, police said. 03/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9485 6. Ofcom fines Barclaycard over silent calls Ofcom has fined Britain's biggest credit card company Barclaycard £50,000 over silent phone calls made on behalf of the company. The telecoms regulator called Barclaycard's behaviour "the most serious" silent calls case it had ever investigated. 03/10/2008 http://www.out-law.com/page-9486 ***OUT-LAW Radio: returns next week*** http://www.out-law.com/page-7212 ***About this email*** This is a weekly email for subscribers of OUT-LAW.COM, a website with more than 8,000 pages of free legal news and guidance. If and when you need further advice, we hope you'll choose Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. Feel free to forward this email to your friends. If someone forwarded this email to you and you'd like your own subscription, register free at http://www.out-law.com. Existing subscribers: you can manage your profile at http://www.out-law.com/page-520. The email address for this subscription is <>. Feel free to give us your feedback by replying to this email. To unsubscribe, please reply with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. (We'd also appreciate you telling us why you've decided to unsubscribe.) This email is sent on behalf of Pinsent Masons LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales (registered number: OC333653) and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The word 'partner', used in relation to the LLP, refers to a member of the LLP or an employee or consultant of the LLP or any affiliated firm who has equivalent standing and qualifications. A list of the members of the LLP, and of those non-members who are designated as partners, is displayed at the LLP's registered office: CityPoint, One Ropemaker Street, London EC2Y 9AH, United Kingdom.