The Romanian Government has approved the necessary legislative amendments to create a holding regime in Romania, the ordinance being published in the Official Gazette on Friday, November 15, effective as of January 1st, 2014. The ordinance includes profits tax exemptions for Romanian holding companies as regards revenues from dividends received, revenues from the sale of shares and revenues from the liquidation process ...
Whether you call it a “shutdown” or a “slowdown,” the lack of a fully-funded federal government is impacting more than the 800,000 federal workers furloughed since October 1.1 According to economic consulting firm, IHS Global Insight, the federal budget debacle will cost $1.6 billion per week in lost gross domestic product ...
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has just enacted a revamped investor residency programme, entitling successful applicants to a permanent residence certificate (PRC). The Qualifying criteria are: Villas a. Investment of not less than $300,000 in actual construction of a new home, or in renovation of a distressed property as a home for the applicant and his or her dependants, on the islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay, South Caicos, Middle Caicos or North Caicos; or b ...
On March 1, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that $750 million of primary and excess coverage issued to Transocean Holdings, Inc. (“Transocean”) “imposes no relevant limitations upon the extent to which BP [BP American Production Company] is covered” as an additional insured in connection with the Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010 ...
Introduction:The Consumer Protection Act, Cap. 326D (‘the Act’) aims at protecting consumer rights by, among other things, prohibiting and penalizing the use of unfair contract terms by suppliers of services. The Act is administered and enforced by the Fair Trading Commission (‘the FTC’). This article summarises the effect of the Act on how service providers can legally contract with their customers. This article does not focus on suppliers of goods ...
After a slight pause, the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - are continuing on their path to entering the euro zone, which was first entered by Estonia in 2011 ...
South Africa has a rapidly evolving climate change policy environment, which is in-keeping with the country¡¦s view of itself as a developing country leader in the climate change arena. Part of the policy environment includes attention to financial mechanisms that can be marshaled in support of the response to climate change ...
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) could mean trouble for many Community trade marks. There is now a heightened risk that national courts will invalidate these trade marks if they have not been used extensively enough in the European Union. Is broader protection better? A Community trade mark (CTM) confers protection in all 27 EU member states ...
As Panama became part of a number of industrial property related treaties, our internal laws have become more territorial; the use of a trademark is territorial again and registration becomes imperative for protection. In Panama, as happens in most of the countries around the world, the right to register a trademark is acquired by its first use in commerce ...
Insurers often have a duty to settle underlying claims against their insureds. While that duty generally requires insurers to accept reasonable settlement offers, insurers and insureds alike face many other issues regarding settlement of the underlying case ...
PrefaceThis guide is written as an introduction to Ukrainian legal system from the viewpoint of foreign investors, in particular Chinese ones, and will help you in deciding whether to do a deal in Ukraine and what strategy should be chosen when investing in this country. The digest of key legal issues may be found helpful both at the stage of initial investment research and in the course of a particular investment project ...
I OVERVIEWChile continues to offer an attractive business environment. Chile was the first Latin American economy to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and is party to dozens of free trade agreements (including with the United States, the European Union, Mexico, South Korea and Brazil) ...
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that excess insurance policies are triggered when the payment of losses exceed the attachment point rather than when the policyholder’s loss obligations exceed the attachment point. Ali v. Fed. Ins. Co., No. 11-5000-cv, 2013 WL 2396046 (2d Cir. June 4, 2013). The decision is another reminder that outcomes in insurance disputes may depend on subtle differences in the wording of insurance policies ...
At the end of May, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced a Florida import company president to 22 months in federal prison for violating consumer product safety and other laws. His wife, an executive of a related company, was sentenced to a year of probation. The case is significant because it involves a criminal prosecution of importers of unsafe children’s products ...
On June 14, 2013, Governor Rick Perry signed legislation, which for the first time authorizes domestic captive insurers in Texas. The bill, known as SB 734, allows Texas businesses to realize the advantages, including tax benefits, of forming and operating a “pure” captive insurance company without the burden and cost associated with an out-of-state captive ...
Purchases of shares or assets of the target companyPurchases of shares are relatively free of restrictions unless the target company is a public corporation (namely, a company that has its shares registered with the Chilean securities and insurance regulator, the SVS), one of the parties to the transaction participates in a regulated industry or the entity resulting from a business combination raises competition issues ...
In Louisiana Generating LLC v. Illinois Union Ins. Co., No. 12-30651 (5th Cir. May 15, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") alleging violations of the Clean Air Act ("CAA") obligated an insurer to defend its insured ...
Another natural disaster has devastated a community. By now, all are aware of the tragedy the tornado inflicted on residents of Moore, Oklahoma, destroying lives and property. We join in offering our condolences to those affected by the storm. Although there is no way to replace lost lives, as with other catastrophes, there are likely to be a myriad of financial issues that will need to be addressed to rebuild and replace property. Maximizing insurance recoveries is one component ...
Every year, tornadoes in the United States cause dozens of fatalities and inflict billions of dollars in property damage. The EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20 was the most powerful and destructive storm yet of the 2013 season. Although the Moore tornado is only one of 343 tornadoes already reported nationwide through May 23, more than 1300 occur annually in the United States, based on a three-year average ...
The Libyan Trade Mark Office (“LTMO”) has resumed the process of trade mark searching since April 2013 and will reportedly be accepting new applications for the registration of trade marks in May 2013. This after the LTMO had ceased its operations in January 2011 due to civil unrest in the country. There has, however, been some uncertainty with regard to the LTMO’s acceptance of new trade mark applications ...
The Comoro Islands, situated off the south-east coast of Africa, has ratified the Bangui Agreement, thereby becoming one of the 17 member countries of The African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI). The Bangui Agreement, once consented to, requires that the member states accede to the international treaties and conventions listed in the Agreement ...
In a recent decision by the Court of Appeal of Québec, the Honourable Jacques Chamberland, J.C.A. reviewed the application of exclusion clauses contained in a home insurance policy in the context of criminal activities1. THE FACTSThe Appellant, Union canadienne compagnie d’assurance insured the building of respondent, Mrs. Lise Houle and her spouse, Christian Alexandre. The latter was growing cannabis in the insured building ...
In recent months, high profile M&A warranty claims1 and falling premiums have dramatically increased the utilization of "representations and warranty insurance" (RWI), also known as "warranty and indemnity insurance," in mergers, acquisitions and related transactions. By one account, demand for transactional risk insurance policy limits in North America grew by eighty-six percent (86%) in 2012 ...
