As the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic continues, many public companies are examining how best to accommodate their upcoming annual shareholder meetings in light of complying with government orders and recommendations limiting public gatherings and non-essential travel. Accordingly, many corporate executives are now considering moving their annual shareholder meetings to a virtual or “hybrid” format in light of current public health and safety concerns ...
Effective at noon today, May 29, 2020, Virginia Governor Northam's Executive Order 63 went into effect, requiring face coverings to be worn in certain circumstances. Specifically, a face covering is required for individuals aged ten and older when "entering, exiting, traveling through, and spending time inside" the following categories of businesses: All retail. Food and beverage, but only when reopened for indoor dining. Personal care/grooming - i.e ...
On March 2, 2021, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed the Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA or law) into law. This makes Virginia the second state, behind California, to adopt a comprehensive consumer data privacy law. Like the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the CDPA creates a number of privacy obligations for businesses and gives Virginia consumers more control over their personal data. The CDPA takes effect on Jan ...
‘Spear Tackle’ Case When Brian O’Driscoll was lifted and dropped unceremoniously by All Blacks Keven Mealamu and Tana Umaga in the first Lions test the issue of spear tackling became a hotly debated topic. Spear tackles have been in the news before and a recent Australian case involving a spear tackle in a rugby league match has reignited the debate on when the courts should intervene regarding violence in sport ...
The Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority (“VCCA”) recently issued its Annual Report for 2021 (“Report”). In this Client Alert, we outline the information provided by the VCCA on its activities related to the Law on Competition (2018) (“Law”) in 2021. While not addressed in this Client Alert, the Report also outlines other activities of the VCCA during this period including in respect of consumer protection ...
The Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority recently published a report on Economic Concentration Control for the period July 2019- July 2021 which is available in Vietnamese and English on its website. Some highlights of the report are as follows: The total value of economic concentrations in Vietnam in 2019 was USD 7.2 billion which was approximately 94.7% of 2018’s total value; in contrast, the total value of economic concentrations in Vietnam in 2020 was only USD 3 ...
The Government of Vietnam recently released a draft decree (“Draft Decree”) amending Decree 153/2020/ND-CP that was issued on 31 December 2020 on the trading of privately placed corporate bonds on the domestic market and selling corporate bonds on the international market (“Current Decree”). The Draft Decree was designed to facilitate a more transparent and effective corporate bond market ...
The Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority has released several documents related to the merger notification regime that was effectively implemented on 15 May 2020, the effective date of Decree 35. As the National Competition Committee has not yet been appointed, the documents clarify that, in accordance with its responsibility under Article 7 ...
On 18 June 2019, the Council for Arbitration Development at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, authorized Vienna International Arbitral Centre («VIAC») to administer arbitration disputes with the seat (place of the arbitration) in Russia. According to Secretary General of VIAC, Dr. Alice Fremuth-Wolf, the arbitration institution receives approximately 60 – 70 claims per year, with 5 – 7 involving Russian parties ...
On 18 June 2019, the Council for Arbitration Development at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, authorized Vienna International Arbitral Centre (“VIAC”) to administer arbitration disputes with the seat (place of the arbitration) in Russia. According to Secretary General of VIAC, Dr. Alice Fremuth-Wolf, the arbitration institution receives approximately 60 – 70 claims per year, with 5 – 7 involving Russian parties ...
You’ve heard of Victoria’s Secret, right! The US company is, of course, a well-known purveyor of lingerie, a product for which there is clearly a great deal of demand: Victoria’s Secret has some 1 000 stores throughout the world, and its turnover in 2010 was an impressive US$5.5 billion. In 2012 Victoria’s Secret lodged an objection to a domain name registration for www.victoriassecrets.com ...
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has notified Stortinget of an infringement fine of two million kroner and imposed an infringement fine of four million kroner on Østre Toten municipality. In both cases, the Authority emphasizes that it is a clear management responsibility to secure the business against such attacks, and that two-factor authentication, awareness-raising and an appropriate risk and vulnerability analysis are key measures ...
As anyone who’s interested in trade mark law knows, it is possible to protect product shapes through trade mark registrations, but it isn’t easy. In some countries, it’s particularly difficult, as two recent cases show. Vespa Let's start with the positive news. Piaggio recently secured an important victory in its home country, with an Italian court ruling that a three-dimensional trade mark registration for the shape of the famous Vespa scooter is valid ...
Carmen Verdonck and Stefanie Vyncke wrote the chapter onBelgian Law in the 2009 edition of 'Getting The Deal Through: VerticalAgreements'. This updated edition examines the regulation of distribution practices in jurisdictions worldwide.Antitrust law1 ...
This inBrief highlights the different aspects of venture capital, animportant source of raising money for start-up companies which donot have access to capital markets. We discuss the different types ofventure financing through which start-ups can raise money andwhich are taken into account when assessing valuations ...
With the well-known challenges of the last ten months or so, market conditions deteriorated substantially over 2022 and the venture capital (VC) market became a far more challenging one in which to agree a valuation and raise money. While those challenges are not over, from speaking to VC clients and others, there's a cautious optimism that as 2023 progresses the market will slowly improve ...
One of the amendments to the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended (the Tax Code), which was introduced by Republic Act (RA) No. 10963 (the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law) and took effect on 1 January 2018, was the increase of value-added tax (VAT) from 0% to 12% on the sale of goods and services to export enterprises upon satisfaction of certain conditions under the TRAIN Law. On 11 April 2021, RA No ...
The UAE has issued substantive law on Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Tax. Federal decree law No.8 of 2017 deals with VAT. The imposition of VAT will commence in the UAE from 1 January 2018 at a rate of 5%. The VAT law provides a framework for implementation of VAT in the UAE ...
Background VAS Holdings & Investments LLC v. Commissioner of Revenue, No. SJC-13139, currently on appeal before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, seeks to answer whether a state can tax a nondomiciliary on 100%—or any—of its capital gain derived from the sale of its interest in a subsidiary solely because the subsidiary did business in that state ...
The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) is a regulatory body established by the government of Dubai to oversee and regulate the virtual assets industry. In line with its mandate, VARA has issued a number of rule books, in particular the Compliance and Risk Management Rulebook (CRM), which sets out the regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in Dubai ...
