On January 19, 2010, the Department of Justice pulled back the curtain on its largest prosecutions of individuals in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). About 150 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 22 individuals and executed 14 search warrants in the United States and United Kingdom. Those arrested are believed to represent about 16 companies involved in the foreign bribery investigation ...
The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 (Regulations) came into force on 28 December 2009 and created new obligations for service providers. The Regulations stem from the EU Services Directive (Directive), which aims to simplify regulatory and administrative procedures in relation to establishing and carrying on services in the EU, thereby encouraging more services to be provided on a cross-border basis ...
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued final regulations, effective January 14, 2010, that (1) clarify that the contribution timing rules apply to plan loan repayments, and (2) provide a safe harbor for depositing participant contributions (including loan repayments) to employee benefit plans with fewer than 100 participants on the first day of the plan year ...
As described in an earlier alert, the IRS has announced a document correction program covering certain failures to comply with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (“Section 409A”), which contains tax rules for nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements. This Alert focuses on a common error that can now be corrected, and the importance of finding and correcting this and other errors as quickly as possible ...
In a case arising from the Southern District of Texas, the Federal Circuit recently issued an opinion that highlights the risks associated with marking products with patent numbers. See Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Co., No. 2009-1044 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 28, 2009) (slip opinion) ...
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is implementing a series of measures designed to enhance and encourage cooperation in its investigations and litigation and, the Division hopes, expedite the enforcement program. This project is referred to as the “Cooperation Initiative ...
On January 1, 2010 the Federal law “On amendment the Federal Law “On the employment of the population in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter – the “Law”) came into force. The Law provides for the equal rights to the dismissed citizens, who worked under employment contract with individual entrepreneurs and to those who were dismissed from legal entities ...
The Department of Labor recently issued model notices for employers to use under the COBRA subsidy extension, and the Internal Revenue Service issued additional guidance for an employer claiming on its federal employment tax return (Form 941) the credit for 2009 retroactive coverage arising from the subsidy extension for those individuals who had otherwise exhausted the subsidy period ...
The IRS has issued a Notice that describes a document correction program covering certain failures to comply with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (“409A”). 409A contains tax rules for nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements. While this IRS program offers employers welcome relief from inadvertent drafting mistakes and other failures to conform applicable documents to the requirements of 409A, it also raises some additional concerns ...
On December 30, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) formally published amendments to Rule 206(4)-2 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Custody Rule”). The Custody Rule is designed to increase protections for clients and investors who turn their assets over to an investment adviser registered with the SEC, and it imposes significant new regulatory requirements on advisers with custody of client assets. Surprise Examination Requirement ...
Buyers and sellers often have different views on how much a target is worth and how its value should best be determined. Normally, the valuation of a company is based on both its past performance and its projected future performance. While the seller may be confident of the company's future growth, the buyer may be reluctant to assume the risk of the company failing to perform as expected by paying the seller the whole purchase price upfront ...
The Head of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) has determined that the previous regulation regarding affiliated and conflict of interest on particular transactions no longer suits its purpose and through his decision No.KEP-412/BL/2009 he has repealed and replaced the earlier regulation Decision No. Kep-521/BL/2008. The new regulation has been in effect since 25 November 2009 ...
The Head of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) issued Decree No.KEP-413/BL/2009 on 25 November 2009 to assist issuers and public companies to perform their business activities while simultaneously protecting their investors. The decree updates an earlier decision, No.Kep-02/PM/2002 and its Regulation No.IX.E.2. The decision repeals and replaces the previous decisions and amends Regulation No.IX.E.2 ...
The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has issued Decision No. 57/KPPU/Kep/III/2009, dated 12 March 2009, regarding Guidance to Implement Provisions in Article 50 (b) of Law No. 5 of 1999 regarding Prohibition of Monopoly Practice and Unfair Business Competition Relating to Franchise-Related Agreements (“KPPU Guidance”) ...
The fifth anniversary has just passed of the Constitutional Court’s 2004 ruling which declared that Article 158 and certain other articles of the Manpower Law in relation to serious misconduct were against the Indonesian Constitution. Effectively, an employer could not immediately terminate an employee for serious misconduct but had to wait for a court judgment of guilt before initiating termination ...
With the current recessionary climate there has been a significant increase in redundancies and other dismissals. This has led to an inevitable increase in the use of compromise agreements whereby an employee signs a document agreeing not to bring particular employment or contractual claims in exchange for a financial settlement.Here we look at some of the key issues in considering how termination payments could be structured ...
Over the last ten years, Quebec soc iety has frequently been called on to establ ish means for integrating human rights in the workplace, particularly with respect to accommodation matters ...
In the case of Leung Ka Lau & Ors v The Hospital Authority [2006] HKEC 399, doctors working in public hospitals successfully claimed compensation in the Court of First Instance for "rest days" and "holidays" for which they had been deprived but lost their claim on compensation for "overtime" worked (Please refer to our newsletter issue 2006.2) ...
The decision by presiding judge William Stone has overruled the Labour Tribunal decision in January 2009 and allowed the appeal of Cathay Pacific. The Tribunal presiding officer held that line duty and ground duty allowances could be characterized as "daily wages". They were recurrent in nature, calculated on a daily basis and directly related to the number of hours worked ...
Winning the case against its flight attendants, Cathay Pacific loses against a group of pilots they sacked during a 2001 industrial dispute. The airline, one of Asia's biggest, was ordered to pay damages to each of the 18 pilots whose employment had been terminated by Cathay Pacific ...
The statutory Minimum Wage Bill (the "Bill") was gazetted on 26 June 2009 and tabled at the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 8 July 2009. The Bill will require every employer to pay employees minimum wage at an hourly rate, however it does not seek to regulate the number of hours that employees spend at work ...
In a decision that stands as a cautionary note to trustees of pension and benefit plans, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has found the Trustees of the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan (the "Plan") guilty of breaching the investment rules applicable to pension plans in Ontario. 1. The Facts in Christophe The Plan’s portfolio is valued at approximately $1 billion ...
On 1 September 2009, the long-anticipated Social Security Agreement between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of India (the “SSA”) entered into force. The SSA was signed in New Delhi on 3 November 2006 and is considered as a landmark agreement as it was the first treaty of its kind to be signed by the Indian authorities. Therefore it is likely to serve as a benchmark for similar agreements between India and other countries ...
THE MEMBER FUNDED PENSION PLAN: A DEFINED BENEFIT PENSION PLAN THAT LIMITS THE EMPLOYER'S FINANCIAL RISKJosée [email protected]çois [email protected] decision by an employer to offer a pension plan to its employees is an important one. Various types of pension plans may be offered, and the financial risk of the employer depends on the type of plan chosen ...
by Oleh I. Furmanchuk, Associate with AstersAccording to the 2008 Yearly Report of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the "AMCU"), 658 cases regarding anticompetitive actions of bodies of power were investigated by the AMCU and its bodies in 2004-2008. In 2008, the AMCU investigated 215 such cases, demonstrating a 17.5% increase compared to the previous year (there were 183 cases in 2007) ...
