Following a tip, the Serbian Competition Commission (the "Commission") recently started investigating the business relationship between GR Sport and Polanik, a Polish company, concerning an alleged infringement of competition – the conclusion of a restrictive agreement which was not notified for prior exemption under the applicable legal framework ...
Privacy is Dead - But we never wanted it anyway, muses Adrian Tan. Over the past few weeks, our inboxes were bombarded by emails about privacy. Companies wrote to us, in a state of panic, because of the General Data Protection Regulation. That is a new European Union law that recently came into force. Among the many things that the GDPR does is to regulate the export of personal data outside the EU ...
Introduction I have been asked to speak on the Base Erosion Profit Sharing of the OECD, or better know as BEPS. This is a new acronym that, similar to CRS and the harmful tax initiative program, is geared at a multilateral approach to the application of uniform tax rules and standards. Unlike the CRS and the harmful tax practices initiatives of the past, BEPS has a focus not necessarily on the private client, but on the multinational commercial organization ...
On May 9, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein released a new “Policy on Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties” (“Policy”) in an effort to ameliorate the unwarranted “piling on” of penalties by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and other law enforcement agencies outside of the DOJ. The Policy’s teeth come in the form of the new section 1-12.100 to the United States Attorney Manual, which requires U.S ...
The California Legislature is considering legislation that would, if enacted, prohibit public agencies that form a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) from contracting out of liability for the JPA's pension obligations. Backed by CalPERS, AB 1912 was introduced early this year partly in response to drastic CalPERS pension cuts for former employees of LA Works, a dissolved job-training JPA ...
In the Loop: With the Hanson Bridgett Government Group We’ve been getting lots of questions from public agencies about the General Data Protection Regulation—known as GDPR. GDPR is a new European Union privacy law that governs the processing of personal data about people residing in Europe. It just went into effect on May 25 ...
Not long after President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Department of Commerce launched an investigation that may lead to additional duties on imported vehicles and automotive parts. Effective, the Department will now examine whether imports of vehicles and auto parts threaten U.S. national security ...
The political dispute between Qatar and its neighbors escalated with the announcement by Qatar that it would impose a ban on goods from the four boycotting countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. As we reported earlier, these four countries imposed a trade embargo on Qatar. The measures that were introduced prohibited the direct shipment of goods and the direct transport of passengers to or from Qatar and closed the land border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia ...
The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Trade Marks 2018 Philippine Chapter Enrique T. Manuel and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan, SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan 1 Relevant Authorities and Legislation 1.1 What is the relevant trade mark authority in your jurisdiction? The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is therelevant trade mark authority. 1 ...
Recent media reports have suggested that 100 per cent foreign ownership of companies in the UAE will now be permitted. The reports are based on a government press release regarding a UAE Federal Cabinet (Cabinet) meeting held on 20 May 2018. The press release states that the Cabinet announced changes in the system of foreign ownership in the UAE allowing global investors to own 100 per cent of companies by the end of the current year ...
As Lord Sumption’s leading judgment of the Supreme Court inRock Advertising Limited v MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited[2018] UKSC 24 states, it is rare that modern litigation raises truly fundamental issues in the law of contract. This case, however, raisedtwosuch issues, although as a result of the Court’s decision on the first issue, it was not necessary to decide the “difficult” second issue ...
Artificial intelligence has undergone significant developments in the last few years, particularly in respect of what is now known as deep learning.1 This method is the extension of the neural networks which have been used for a few years for machine learning. Deep learning, as any other form of machine learning, requires that the artificial intelligence system be placed before various situations in order to react to situations which are similar to previous experiences ...
With Administrator Scott Pruitt at its helm, cooperative federalism is the frequently recited principle underlying recent EPA enforcement efforts. As the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory oversight in areas like the Clean Water Act is delegated to the states, the agency is relying more upon state and local authorities to enforce the laws. There are shortcomings associated with this approach, which were raised in the recent U.S ...
The Legal 500 & The In-House LawyerComparative Legal GuidePhilippines: Mergers & Acquisitions Country Author: Franco Aristotle G. Larcina, Partner, SyCip SalazarHernandez & Gatmaitan 1. What are the key rules/laws relevant to M&A and who are the key regulatory authorities? M&A activity is governed primarily by the Corporation Code of the Philippines (Batas Pambansa Blg. 68) ...
A common question we receive from school systems relates to whether certain employees (both service personnel and professional personnel) recapture their seniority if there has been a break in their employment with the school system but they later return to employment. Often a break in employment is the result of a voluntary break or unfortunately a reduction in force ...
Many companies use so-called tracking tools on their website to analyze the use of the website by their visitors, and possibly also to carry out advertising activities on the basis of user profiles created with the tracking tools. These tracking tools mainly use cookies, i.e. small files that can identify a user of a website and that are deposited on the respective user's computer ...
Under Art. 26 GDPR, "joint controllers" must find an agreement on the data protection obligations between themselves. If they do not do so, they risk a fine pursuant to Art. 83 (4) GDPR. However, the question of when Joint Controllership applies is still a matter of dispute. REQUIREMENTS FOR A JOINT CONTROLLERSHIP Under Art. 26 (1) GDPR, where two or more Controllers jointly determine the purposes and means of processing, they must be classified as "Joint Controllers" ...
“We simply cannot go on with this utterly outmoded way of working…Endlessly re-keying in the same information; repeatedly printing and photocopying the same documents; moving files about, losing all or parts of them in the process… It is a heavy handed, duplicative, inefficient and costly way of doing our work and it is all about to go. Considerably past time, we will finally catch up with the world.” Sir Brian Leveson ...
On April 24, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) announced its first enforcement action against a public company for failing to disclose a data breach. In a settled cease-and-desist order, the SEC imposed a $35 million civil penalty against Altaba Inc., formerly known as Yahoo! Inc ...
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Theresa May said the government wanted to, “secure broad energy cooperation with the EU”, including by, “exploring options for the UK’s continued participation in the EU’s internal energy market” ...
The Philippine National Privacy Commission (NPC), which administers the country’s Data Privacy Act (DPA), has recently made available to the public copies of its advisory opinions. These opinions had been issued in response to various queries regarding the proper application and interpretation of the provisions of the DPA and its implementing rules and regulations. Issue of consent Advisory Opinion No ...
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision in United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, Inc., has further complicated the answer to what should be a simple question: What is the statute of limitations in qui tam action when the government declines to intervene? There are currently three different answers to that seemingly simple question depending on the forum in which a case is filed ...
The Bavarian data protection supervisory authority has prepared a series of template documents and overviews, intended to help small companies with GDPR compliance. At first glance, these documents do indeed provide important support for small companies. These have to fulfil almost all obligations under the GDPR in a similar manner to medium-sized businesses and large corporations ...
