In order to implement Government Regulation No. 24 of 2018 which introduced an online system for processing and issuing certain business licenses (known as the Online Single Submission “OSS” system), earlier this year, the Investment Coordinating Board (“BKPM”) issued 2 new regulations on investment, ie BKPM Regulation No. 6 of 2018 on the Guidelines and Procedure for Capital Investment Licensing and Facilities (“Regulation 6/2018”) and Regulation No ...
In North Midland Building Ltd v Cyden Homes Ltd, the Court of Appeal held that an express contractual term allowing an employer to levy liquidated damages for periods of concurrent delay took precedence over a common law principle known as the prevention principle. Background Cyden Homes Limited (CH) employed a contractor, North Midland Building Limited (NMB), to design and build a large house in the Midlands, under a JCT Design and Build construction contract ...
Legislation to update US controls on foreign investment has been signed by the President and enacted into law. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) expands the scope of review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) of foreign investment in critical and foundational technologies that impact US national security, broadly defined ...
Legislation and agencies 1 What are the main statutes and regulations relating to employment? The Labor Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended) (the Labor Code) and the Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code ...
This past year the North Carolina Legislature has been incredibly active. Among the legislation proposed and adopted, a few bills will create changes in how contractors interact with various public entities. Most notably, big changes are on the horizon for contractors that work with the NCDOT and with school systems. Sitting with the Committee on Transportation, H.B ...
It’s been widely reported that Roger Federer has signed a 10-year, USD300-million sponsorship deal with the clothing brand UNIQLO. The new deal was announced with some style when Roger walked out on Wimbledon Centre Court in his fancy new threads on the first day of the 2018 championships. The UNIQLO deal is interesting in a number of respects ...
The recent Kenyan High Court judgment in the case of Sony Corporation v Sony Holdings Limited (a decision of Judge Tuiyoyy dated 29 May 2018) has attracted considerable attention. Much of the talk has been around the fact that Sony, arguably one of the best known brands in the world, was denied protection as a well-known trade mark. But there’s more to this judgment than that ...
Global Competition Review (GCR) publishedThe European, Middle Eastern and African Antitrust Review 2019. The “Israel Overview” chapter was written by FBC’s Tal Eyal-Boger, Ziv Schwartz and Shani Brown ...
One of the most pressing issues for employers in relation to Brexit is immigration and the rights of EU citizens following the UK’s exit from the EU. Many UK businesses hire EU workers, with some sectors such as agriculture being particularly dependent on seasonal EU workers; still more will employ individuals who have family members who are EU nationals ...
We don’t often discuss Korean trade mark cases, but a recent registry decision is worth a look because it shines a spotlight on a particularly interesting aspect of trade mark law: character merchandising.Kakao Corp is Korea’s largest mobile service provider. One of its offerings is KakaoTalk, a mobile messaging service that’s apparently used by some 154-million people around the globe ...
The #MeToo movement has galvanized many into taking action to fight workplace harassment. Since the movement began in the fall of last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—tasked with enforcing laws prohibiting sexual harassment—has indicated it has seen an uptick in the amount of traffic to its website ...
On July 24, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) voted to propose rule amendments aimed at simplifying certain financial disclosure requirements for guarantors, issuers and pledgors in registered debt offerings ...
Two recent cases and a recently-released Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Program Manager Technical Advice Memorandum have sent shockwaves through the voluntary disclosure community. All three developments give offshore account-holders something to cheer. PMTA 2018-13 In previous client alerts, we have discussed the definition of "willfulness" in the context of offshore assets and, more recently, the closing of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) ...
In past years, we have advised clients that as long as no unit in a multi-unit new condominium project is rented before its condominium map is recorded, later sales of units do not fall under the city's condominium conversion ordinance, which does not at this time allow conversion of buildings of more than two units ...
On 27 July 2018, the newly established Financial Sector Conduct Authority (“FSCA”) published the final Conduct Standard, No 1 of 2018, setting out the Criteria for Authorisation of OTC Derivatives Providers (“ODPs”). The Regulations under the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (the “FMA Regulations”) were promulgated in February of this year, effectively setting a deadline of 8 August 2018 for ODPs to apply for licences ...
The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that Christian Louboutin’s famous red sole does not consist solely of ashape that significantly increases the value of aproduct, and therefore can be registered as atrademark. This is an important victory for the fashion designer in the long-running battle concerning red-soled shoes ...
A gap in legal provisions might mean criminal liability for management board members for not filing financial statements on time. Amendments enacted earlier this year to the National Court Register Act have already caused some confusion and alot of trouble for companies whose management boards solely comprise foreigners ...
This month, courts have been active in several of the fiduciary breach cases involving 403(b) retirement plans at private universities, including USC, Brown, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Northwestern. We have been closely monitoring these and other lawsuits against fiduciaries of defined contribution plans, and the lessons to be gleaned for avoiding liability ...
California has enacted a sweeping tough new privacy law ...
Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice ("CJEU") has thrown out an appeal by Nestlé, which argued that it owns the shape of its famous treat KitKat. Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, has spent more than a decade fighting to trademark the four-fingered wafer shape. However, EJC's most recent ruling could bring an end to the snack's protected European status ...
The Croatian Parliament adopted the new Capital Markets Act in order to align the Croatian legislation with the EU acquis. The act adjusts the Croatian legislation with the cornerstone of EU's financial markets regulation - the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments repealing Directive 2004/39/EC and the Regulation on Markets in Financial Instruments, commonly referred to as MiFID II and MiFIR ...
Earlier this year, the government released a proposal paper: Extending Unfair Contract Terms Protections to Insurance Contracts outlining a model to extend unfair contract term (UCT) provisions to insurance contracts regulated under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (IC Act) for consultation. The consultation period closes on 27 July. A high level summary of the proposed model is below ...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA") provides new exclusion and deferral benefits for investors who purchase interests in qualified opportunity funds. Much like qualified small business stock ("QSBS") under IRC sections 1202 and 1045, new IRC section 1400Z-2 allows investors to defer and, in some cases, exclude gain on the sale of assets. However, gain can be deferred under IRC section 1400Z-2 only if invested in designated low-income communities ...
After 16 public hearings over a five year period lasting through the tenure of three mayors, the largest San Francisco rezoning plan in ten years received a unanimous Planning Commission approval on May 10, 2018. On Monday of this week, the Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors had a first hearing to listen to testimony about plan ...