On May 25, deputies Karim Bianchi, Boris Barrera, Jaime Naranjo, Alexis Sepúlveda and Pedro Velásquez presented a bill That seeks to to assign the Chilean Competition Court ( Tribunal for the Defense of Free Competition - " TDLC ") the authority to Set maximum consumer prices for food and housing repair related-products, in the event of a constitutional state of exception ...
The UK Government has this week announced what would be the biggest shake-up of the competition and consumer protection policy landscape for the last 20 years. On 20 July 2021 the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a consultation document setting out its proposals for sweeping reforms of the UK’s competition and consumer protection law regimes and inviting responses by 1 October 2021 ...
Since March 2020, the United States and Canada have agreed upon mutually reciprocal COVID-19 related travel restrictions. U.S. and Canadian officials mutually determined that “non-essential” travel between the U.S. and Canada “poses additional risk of transmission and spread of the virus associated with COVID-19 and places the populace of both nations at increased risk of contracting the virus associated with COVID-19 ...
The Scottish Government has published its route map out of lockdown, legislating five levels, each imposing increasingly tougher restrictions. As at 19 July, the whole of Scotland moved to Level 0, with cautious optimism that most legal restrictions might be removed entirely in August. However, in the meantime, the move to Level 0 does not mean that everything returns to how it was pre-pandemic – there will remain a level of restrictions and compliance points that must be met ...
The Finance Minister of India in the 2021-22 Union Budget had announced that the Government proposes to review 400 exemption notifications. The exemption on more than 150 items, currently exempted under Notifications Nos. 14/2006-Customs dated 01.03.2006, 26/2011-Customs dated 01.03.2011 and 50/2017-Customs dated 30.06.2017 could be axed. The Telecom, Information Technology, Wind Power, Textiles and Pharmaceuticals are a few of the affected sectors ...
Financial ServicesRuling of Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia on QardAt its 213th meeting of the Shariah Advisory Council (“SAC”) of Bank Negara Malaysia, the SAC ruled that the method under Malaysian Financial Reporting Standard (“MFRS”) 17 Insurance Contracts and MFRS 9 Financial Instruments may be adopted to measure qard (interest free loan) for transactions between shareholders’ fund and takaful fund ...
On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging executive order entitled “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” One key element of the executive order is to address noncompete covenants that the White House characterized as stifling competition between companies. Section 5(g) encouraged the FTC to draft rules which seek to “curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may unfairly limit worker mobility ...
Health care practitioners are seemingly subject to a constantly growing laundry list of regulatory requirements. However, the Ohio General Assembly has reduced the administrative burden on certain professionals seeking licensure in multiple states through the enactment of interstate license compact legislation ...
In 2013, the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck, which at the time only held limited secondary patents related to certain antidepressants, was fined EUR 93.7 million by the European Commission for having entered into settlement agreements in 2002 whereby Lundbeck paid generic manufacturers for not challenging its patents. The payments corresponded to the profits that the generic manufacturers could have made if they had successfully entered the market ...
From a competition law standpoint, the regulation of sport presents a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, sports regulations may limit the ability of economic actors (including sportspeople) to win business through unrestricted competition. On the other hand, without such regulations, the essential core of the sport (and the business interests built around it) may be undermined ...
The parties to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) have agreed to formally commence an accession process with the UK. Ahead of the start of formal negotiations, the UK Government has set out its strategic approach to accession ...
Directors have a fiduciary duty to their companies as they hold positions of trust and confidence and as a result, have an obligation to act in good faith and in the company’s best interests. Ghana’s new Companies Act (Act 992) introduces provisions concerning amongst others, the requirement for Directors to deal transparently while handling transactions, and their obligations when managing conflict-of-interest situations ...
In a move that will allow greater flexibility for traveling to the United States, the State Department recently announced National Interest Exceptions (NIEs) issued to foreign nationals in the last 12 months who are covered by COVID-related Presidential Proclamations (PPs) will now be valid for 12 months, rather than the previous 30-days. In addition, these NIEs will allow for the ability to use them for multiple entries during the new validity period ...
When the lockdown was a fact in March 2020, Norwegian courts demonstrated a great willingness to keep the wheels of the Norwegian litigation system going by rapidly transitioning to conducting court hearings through video meetings, and by resolving a larger number of cases through written proceedings. The question going forward is whether experiences gained through the pandemic should change how civil procedures are conducted, and if so, what these changes should be ...
On July 13, 2021, Ohio Lieutenant Governor John Husted announced the introduction of the Ohio Personal Privacy Act (OPPA), a comprehensive privacy framework following in the footsteps of recent legislative enactments in California (the CCPA as modified by the CPRA), Virginia (the CDPA), and Colorado (the Colorado Privacy Act) ...
Starting around October 26, 2020, the Small Business Administrations (the “SBA”) asked Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) lenders to provide certain questionnaires to PPP borrowers with loans of $2 million or greater. There are two questionnaire forms on the Treasury: Form 3509 for for-profit borrowers and Form 3510 for non-profit borrowers ...
COVID-19 came upon us all like a tsunami, leveling life as we knew it and causing an entirely new paradigm of behavior to be necessary. No segment of the population was hit harder than seniors, both in our communities and in senior care facilities. Long-term care facilities were on the frontlines of the battle, being one of the first industries to be required to wholly alter traditional behaviors to try to stop the inevitable spread of this deadly virus ...
Chapter 53 of the Texas Property Code just received major updates for the first time in years. On June 15, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law HB 2237. This bill makes many notable changes to Texas’s lien laws. The construction industry and construction lawyers should take note of these changes to the complex and often confusing world of mechanic’s, contractor’s, and materialman’s liens in Texas ...
On 10 June 2021, the Data Security Law (DSL), which will become effective as of 1 September 2021, was adopted in China. The enactment of the DSL marks the introduction of China’s first fundamental law in the field of data security, which, together with the Cybersecurity Law and the upcoming Personal Information Protection Law, will lay a legal foundation for safeguarding national data security, promoting data utilisation and mitigating the risks of data processing activities ...
On 2 July 2021, the Government gazetted the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the Limited Partnership Fund and Business Registration Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2021 (Bills). These new laws aim to open up new channels enabling foreign investment funds to be re-domiciled and registered in Hong Kong as open-ended fund companies (OFCs) or limited partnership funds (LPFs) ...
Since April 2021, over 278 cases of feline pancytopenia, approximately 130 of which have proved fatal, have been detected amongst the UK’s feline population. This has now led to a recall of various cat foods, affecting large and small retailers ...
Contents Please click on the links below to jump to the relevant section: Legislation Relevant entities Relevant activities Tax residence requirements Guidance General requirements Directed and managed Core-income generating activities (CIGA) Premises Employees and personnel Expenditure Enhanced requirements Reduced requirements Outsourcing Enforcement authorities Reporting formalities Demonstrating compliance Penalties Recent developments Legal framework Legisl
The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management issued the first interim final rule with comment period, in what is likely to be a series of rules, aimed at ending surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers ...
The Multifamilly and Healthcare Facility divisions of HUD are a bit like two different dialects of the same language; both offer mortgage insurance under the Federal Housing Administration, but each has its own distinct rules and conventions on underwriting, closing and asset management. Being conversant in one dialect doesn’t necessarily equip you to get by in the other ...
