Inflation and increasing interest rates continued to dominate headlines in financial markets in 2023. As central banks struggled to combat inflation and interest rates continued to increase, borrowers’ borrowing costs increased throughout the year. Increased borrowing costs caused some borrowers to default on their loans, requesting waivers and amendments or initiating a restructuring of their debt ...
Mergers – recent cases On 15 December 2023, Nordea’s acquisition of Danske Bank’s private customer portfolio was unconditionally cleared after a phase II investigation. The market for banking services holds great significance for Norwegian consumers, prompting a thorough examination of Nordea’s acquisition of Danske Bank’s private customer operations by the NCA ...
****Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,**** We would like to update you on recent precedent-setting judgements by Russian courts in matters involving foreign businesses that decided to leave Russia. On 17 October 2023, the Arbitrazh court of Moscow city sustained the claim by Russian bank PJSC Sovkombank against Citibank N.A. (a US company) and its Russian subsidiary JSC KB Citibank concerning the joint recovery of US$24m in losses1. On 21 December 2023, an appeals court upheld the judgement ...
Enhanced obligations for the employer in reorganizations and redundancies From January 1, 2024, certain employer obligations that previously applied to each separate company will now extend to all companies within a corporate group. The legislative changes mandate that the employer is obliged to consider (and offer to the employee) other suitable work throughout the group, even if the employee is not formally employed in any of the other companies within the group ...
Beginning January 1, 2024, companies created or registered in the United States will have to report information about their ownership to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, pursuant to The Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA” or the “Act”). For more information, see our prior alert on this topic here ...
Intellectual property disputes can have staggering financial implications for businesses. One of the most notable examples is the IP battle between Samsung and Apple, which transcended borders and delved into the intricate details of design and utility patents. At the peak of their dispute in the U.S., Apple was awarded over$1 billionin damages in 2012. This case underscores the critical importance of comprehensive IP protection, not just for tech giants but for all enterprises ...
December 27, 2023 By: Philip Nulud and Sylvia Cheong In October, 2023, Korea passed a new trademark law to add flexibility to its strict trademark registration requiring that later-filed marks need to be completely unique from existing senior marks. Under current trademark law in Korea, a later-filed mark that is similar to a senior mark already registered with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (“KIPO”) would be rejected for registration ...
On November 17, 2023, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law Senate Bill 4516, amending General Obligation Law Section 5-336 (GOL 5-336). As set forth in our earlier alert from when the law was first enacted, Section 5-336 limited employers’ use of nondisclosure provisions in agreements releasing claims involving sexual harassment ...
Please note the following press release. This press release is available at our homepage. Hertha BSC restructuring with Heuking A challenging year for Hertha BSC is coming to an end. The Berlin-based team was forced to reorganize and restructure in particular due to business constraints and in view of its relegation to Bundesliga 2, Germany’s second division of professional soccer. Led by Dr ...
Employment Tribunals have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where a participant is disadvantaged, for example due to disability, to ensure fairness in proceedings. We share our recent experiences of how the Tribunals apply this duty in practice ...
On 18 January 2019, the Supreme People's Court and the Department of Justice of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region jointly signed theArrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters between the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(the "New Arrangement"). In Hong Kong, the New Arrangement was meant to be implemented via local legislation ...
Nicholas Foss Barbantonis is affiliated with the dispute resolution team in Oslo. He specialises in intellectual property and information technology law dispute resolution and has been involved in several high-profile intellectual property disputes. Nicholas is ranked as a Rising Star in Legal 500 and highlighted as a promising talent in Kapital’s annual lawyer survey. Nicholas is listed in the World Trademark Review guide for enforcement and litigation (WTR 1000) ...
On December 13th, 2023, the Chilean Congress approved a bill that modifies the Labor Code regarding prevention, investigations and sanctioning of sexual harassment, workplace harassment and violence in the workplace (hereinafter, the “Law”). Companies subject to the new regulations The Law is applicable to all companies, regardless of their size. The Law also includes regulations applicable to the State Administration and its multiple agencies ...
The Home Office have released a Statement of Changes which includes changes to be made to the rules for visitors coming to the UK, particularly in relation to their permitted activities. On 7 December 2023, the Home Office released Statement of Changes HC 246 with various changes to the Immigration Rules to be implemented prior to the end of January 2024 ...
Introduction Block exemption regulations (BER) for liner shipping companies have been in place in one form or another since 1986, originally as «Conference» BER, and since 2008 as «Consortia» BER. With the discontinuation, the liner shipping segment joins other shipping segments as fully subject to the competition rules in the EU, including the prohibition against anti-competitive cooperation under Article 101 TFEU ...
December 2023 By: David J. Elkanich and Amber Bevacqua-Lynott There is no question that the practice of law has evolved over the past decade. At one time, lawyers would meet mostly with clients in person in their “brick and mortar” offices, and would principally represent clients in their home jurisdiction (where the client was physically located and where the lawyer is licensed). But times have changed ...
THE BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTER: IMPLEMENTING THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE’S RECOMMENDATIONS ON MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORISM FINANCING IN NIGERIA INTRODUCTION Section 119 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (“CAMA”) 2020, in conjunction with the Persons with Significant Control Regulations (“PSC Regulations”) 2022, requires companies, Limited Liability Partnerships (“LLPs”), and by extension, foreign exempted companies under
Over the last three years, the U.S. Department of Justice has pursued its first-ever criminal antitrust cases targeting alleged deals between companies to avoid poaching each other's employees and to fix wages. In total, the DOJ has brought six cases. Four resulted in acquittals, while just one case yielded guilty pleas. Last month, the DOJ voluntarily dismissed its sixth and last case without explanation. A number of lessons can be drawn from this wave of labor-market prosecutions ...
Module 6 of the UK’s Covid-19 Public Inquiry opened on 12 December 2023, with public hearings set to begin in Spring 2025. This article explores what Module 6 will examine and explains how and why members of the Care Sector may want to become involved ...
This article explores the reasons why sickness absence and mental health issues may rise among employees during the festive period and what employers can do to support their employees during this time. Christmas is traditionally an exciting time of year, but the colder weather and shorter nights can cause lower mood for a lot of people. When feeling low, people can also be more susceptible to illness, picking up unwanted coughs and colds which leaves them feeling even lower ...
