When an advertiser's relationship with its agencies goes bad, a breakup is usually in order, notes Eric Pfanner in the International Herald Tribune. But some folks in London are upset about a new
regulation they worry could threaten this system. At issue is a rule, imposed by the British government this spring, that could require an agency taking on a new account to hire the people who worked
on the account at the previous shop. While the law is intended to protect workers, it also threatens to make advertising account shifts prohibitively expensive -- or counterproductive. "Clients move
from one agency to another to get new people, not to keep the same ones," says Marina Palomba, legal director at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, a trade group. The regulations are
called Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) and stem from European Union rules imposed decades ago. And while the EU is a favorite group to blame when UK employers grumble about
regulations, Pfanner writes that "in this case it appears that the British have only themselves to blame if it turns out that the revised rules, which went into force in April, do hamper the
advertising business."
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