Reword contracts before Brexit, urges law firm Taylors

Claire Barnes, commercial disputes associate, at Taylors, says the government faces a mammoth task during its ‘cut and paste’ job to convert EU law into UK domestic legislation through the Great Repeal Bill. Yet, there are moves businesses can make now to safeguard them in the future.

While potential scenarios are being discussed, companies are still in the dark as to whether they will be better or worse off.

As an example, currently drug makers in the European Economic Area, or single market, can tap into the entire market of more than 500 million patients with a single EU marketing approval. If the UK brought in its own regulators, those drug companies would need to seek approval twice.

She said: “Relations between regulatory bodies post-Brexit is a matter for negotiations in the run-up to the great divorce scheduled to be finalised in March 2019.