On October 1, 2012, changes in Regulation (2003:770) on government authorities’ electronic information exchange enter into force. The changes involve an obligation for a number of government authorities to implement e-commerce, and from May 31, 2013 handle all of their orders for supplies and services electronically. In this article Kristian Pedersen and Ingrid Sandstedt present the new rules ...
While the European Commission’s extensive modernization of the state aid rules proceeds, Sweden will have to wait for a national legislation regarding the application of the European Union’s state aid rules since the legislative process has been delayed. As case law from the Swedish courts show, Swedish administrative courts have to assess state aid cases by applying the Swedish Act on Local Governance ...
To enable a broader and more effective market for re-use of information collected by public sector bodies the EU decided in 2003 to introduce a common set of minimum rules regulating these questions. The rules contain amongst other things a limitation of how high the fee charged for public sector information may be calculated ...
Effective July 1st, 2012, the new revised Swedish legislation on bribery entered into force. The last time this area was more thoroughly revised was in 1977. The previous regulation was criticized for being both inaccessible and outdated. In 2009, the Swedish Government therefore appointed an Inquiry to review the provisions then in force, aiming to create a more modern legislation better adapted to its purpose ...
Last Call: Do you have any Private Corporations Shares in your RRSP? The 2011 federal budget, which was tabled June 6, 2011 (after the defeated March 23, 2011 budget), proposed various broad anti-avoidance tax measures to counter the implementation of tax planning strategies involving investments in registered retirement savings plans (“RRSP”). One such anti-avoidance measure targets the shares of certain private corporations held in an RRSP after March 22, 2011 ...
In the next year, companies that work in the development of oil, natural gas or minerals will have to publicly make new disclosures of payments of $100,000 or more made to governments. The $100,000 threshold is on a project-by-project basis, and will require companies to provide details of the type and amounts of payments made ...
It is not uncommon in class actions for parties to reach a settlement that provides non-monetary relief to the plaintiffs and a payment of attorneys’ fees to class counsel. In August, however, a California federal court denied preliminary approval of such a settlement ...
On August 29, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission released proposed rules to permit general advertising and solicitation in certain private placement offerings as required by the recently enacted JOBS Act. The proposed rules permit issuers to advertise in connection with Rule 506 private placement offerings so long as the securities are sold only to accredited investors ...
Can a building name become a geographical indicator with the consequence that businesses operating from that building cannot include the name in their trade marks? The recent decision of the Federal Court in Mantra IP Pty Ltd v Spagnuolo [2012] FCA 769 has held that the mark "Q1" is inherently adapted to distinguish the services of the accommodation provider, Mantra IP Pty Limited (Mantra), even though "Q1" was also the name of the iconic high rise apartment in wh
With two Congressional Decrees approved in February and March 2012 (“Ley Antievasión II” (Decree 4-2012), and “Ley de Actualización Tribuaria” (Decree 10-2012) respectively), Congress introduces several reforms to the Guatemalan Tax System through extensive amendments to the Tax Code (“Código Tributario”) and other tax laws. The most notorious and substantial reforms affect the VAT Law, the Tobacco Tax Law, the Tax Code, and Income Tax Law ...
In our December 2011 newsletter we reported on Hong Kong's Competition Bill. Subsequent to that newsletter, further revisions were made to the original Bill and we outline below the provisions now to be enacted. The Bill was passed on 14 June 2012 and will come into effect on a day to be appointed by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development ...
The new Companies Ordinance ("Ordinance") passed on 12 July 2012 is expected to become effective in 2014, whereupon:provisions about insolvency and winding up in the current Companies Ordinance ("Current CO") will be retained but retitled as the "Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32)"; the prospectus regime under the Current CO will be moved into the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 577); and all other provisions under the Current CO will be repealed ...
Entertaining a trading partner may be marketing, but if the gesture conveys to the guest an expectation of favourable treatment in awarding a contract, it may be regarded as a form of economic corruption.The question posed in the title - on its surface unrelated to the law - has been raised with us on several occasions recently, by various clients and with respect to various situations ...
The Supreme Court of Poland has held that recognition in Poland of French sauvegarde proceedings, which are covered by the EU’s Insolvency Regulation (1346/2000), is consistent with Polish public policy. The ruling was issued in cases involving a Polish company that sought protection against insolvency in France. The Supreme Court upheld the debtor’s argument that there was no basis for the lower courts in Poland to refuse torecognise the French proceedings ...
How difficult is it to carry out a merger or acquisition under Polish law? It really all depends on the complexity of the business model of the undertaking, and not just the legal aspects. Polish practice, much like the practice in other countries within the Continental legal system - such as France and Germany - has adjusted to solutions from the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, which plays a dominant role in corporate transactions ...
Tomasz Wardynski, Sabina Famirska and Antoni Bolecki of Wardynski & Partners co-authored the chapter on cartel regulation under the Polish law in this year’s report of Getting the Deal Through. The 2012 edition of Getting the Deal Through – Cartel Regulation provides information on application of competition regulation in 46 jurisdictions worldwide ...
The 2012 edition of Getting the Deal Through - Restructuring & Insolvency provides information on restructuring and insolvency law in 53 jurisdictions, including entities excluded from general bankruptcy proceedings, types of security on moveable and immoveable property, types of bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, possibilities of doing business after declaring bankruptcy, bankruptcy estate liquidation rules, the effects of declaring bankruptcy, creditors’ r
Since 2010, foreign investors are allowed to sell their own goods and products through direct online distribution in China, while direct online distribution of goods of third parties is still subject to approval. Other value-added telecommunications services ("VATS") are still limited to foreign investment and subject to approval ...
You are the general counsel of a public company. The CEO walks into your office one day and says that the board of directors has identified a merger target for the company, a public company incorporated in Delaware, but time is of the essence. The CEO asks you what the differences are between one-step and two-step mergers ...
In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bartek, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal “catch all” statute of limitations for government enforcement actions - 28 U.S.C. § 2462 - begins to run when the violation occurs, not when the government discovered the violation.1 The court also held that the statute, which bars actions seeking a “civil fine, penalty or forfeiture,” covers injunctions under certain circumstances ...
In a recent decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered the issue of stock price rebounds in reviving a securities fraud class action suit that had been dismissed by the district court for failure to adequately allege an economic loss as a matter of law. In Rosado v. China North East Petroleum Holdings Ltd., No. 11-4554-cv (2d Cir. Aug ...
The Bankruptcy Code provides a number of “safe harbors” for forward contracts and other derivatives. These provisions exempt derivatives from a number of Bankruptcy Code provisions, including portions of the automatic stay,1 restrictions on terminating executory contracts,2 and the method for calculating rejection damages ...
Under what condition will an offshore trust still fall within your government’s tax net? Offshore trusts may be established and managed in many jurisdictions. In most countries personal taxation is based on residence. The question often asked is what the residency of an offshore trust established by a resident of a certain country is. In the case recently reported in Canada “Fundy settlement, Canada, 2012 SCC 14” (Tim Gestnick – The Globe and Mail Apr ...
No, it is not a nice Mediterranean dish! The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the newest piece of legislation from the US which should ensure and enforce the correct declaration and payment of taxes owed by US tax payers. The bill was passed in March 2010 whereupon the proposed regulations were presented on February 8th, 2012. The act should come into effect through several steps from January 1st, 2013 to January 1st, 2017 when full reporting requirements will be in force ...
Geography, History & Economy The country of Belize is located on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America. Bordered to the North by Mexico, South and West by Guatemala and East by the Caribbean Sea, Belize forms part of Central America and the Caribbean ...
