A recent opinion, 731 Market Street Owner, LLC v. City and County of San Francisco (Cal. Ct. App., June 18, 2020, No. A154369) 2020 WL 3285962 (“731 Market Street Owner”), issued by a California Court of Appeal in San Francisco provides some relief to San Francisco building owners ...
What lies in the new frontier of investment regulation? On May 26, the New York Times reported that the US Justice Department had dropped investigations into three US senators’ stock trades conducted shortly after they had been privately briefed on the novel coronavirus in January. The politicians had dumped millions of dollars of shares in Exxon Mobil, tech giants and real estate companies, some of which later lost value when markets plunged ...
In this article, Aisyah Muhammad discusses whether a party to a contract can rely on the doctrine of frustration in the event of the non-performance of its contractual obligations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Introduction The emergence of the highly contagious Covid-19 virus has without a doubt caused major disruptions across various industries including transportation, retail, tourism and oil and gas ...
Background factsThe respondent, Bina Puri Sdn Bhd (“Bina Puri), obtained an adjudication award dated 31 December 2016 (“Adjudication Award”) against the appellant, Likas Bay Precinct Sdn Bhd (“Likas”), pursuant to the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 (“CIPAA 2012”) whereby Likas had to pay Bina Puri certified sums amounting to RM16,439,628.24 (“Adjudicated Sum”) ...
The new prior authorization regime for economic concentrations in Uruguay passed by Congress in 2019 is in force since April 2020 and therefore premerger control is since mandatory for a large set of transactions involving Uruguay. The Uruguayan Antitrust Commission has recently published the form for market participants to request antitrust authorization ...
Key Points: California Court of Appeal issues two landmark local government finance decisions. Propositions 13 and 218 do not require two-thirds voter approval for special taxes proposed by initiative. A toll is not a tax. The California Court of Appeal in San Francisco has issued two blockbuster decisions in the last week impacting local government finance ...
Setting the right standard to ensure compliance with the technical and organizational safeguards for data security required under Art. 32 GDPR is a challenge for many companies when it comes to electronic communications – not least e-mail. The German Conference of Independent German Federal and State Data Protection Supervisory Authorities (DSK) has issued guidance on the topic. The guidance represents a majority resolution of the German states, with Bavaria dissenting ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has lasted for over four months, and there is no sign that the number of new cases will decrease soon, though many states, companies and service providers are proceeding with the re-opening of business. The unexpected downturn in the economy caused by the pandemic has adversely affected VC financing opportunities for startups ...
In an 8-1 decision delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the much-anticipated BOOKING.COM case, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that in some circumstances, a generic word combined with “.com” can be a protectable trademark. Generic marks are not eligible for trademark protection and are not actually marks at all. Instead, they are essentially the name for the product/service or type of product/service at issue ...
Overview - The article lays forth the framework of laws concerning acquisition of real estate in India. The Constitution of India has empowered both Union Government (as known as the Central Government) as well as the State Governments to legislate laws dealing with various facets of immoveable property in India ...
Business in Bulgaria is experiencing a challenging legal environment in the context of rapidly changing emergency measures dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We have prepared a summary of the key legal measures affecting business in the BULGARIA COVID-19 TRACKER. It will be updated daily, as necessary. Please check regularly for updates. If you have questions, please contact a member of our C19 Task Force ...
The owners of multistate businesses must consider a multitude of factors when deciding how to structure their business ventures, and state taxation cannot be overlooked. The accompanying charts can assist in that evaluation for limited liability companies (LLCs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). In recent years, LLCs and, to a lesser extent, limited partnerships and LLPs, have become the popular choice for structuring or re-structuring multistate business entities ...
Arbitration is one of the preferred mechanisms of dispute resolution in the construction industry. Understanding how an arbitration will unfold is useful in managing a dispute. Most domestic construction disputes are referred to arbitration through, and according to the rules, of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), but other organizations that follow different rules and processes do exist. For AAA arbitrations, the following steps provide a rough outline of a typical proceeding ...
The doctrine of qualified immunity, often invoked by police officers and other government employees in lawsuits alleging civil rights violations, was recently asserted by defendants in a federal False Claims Act (FCA) fraud case. In an interlocutory appeal, a unanimous Fourth Circuit panel has held qualified immunity cannot shield defendants from FCA liability. Citynet, No. 18-1575, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19367 (4th Cir. June 22, 2020) ...
Many jurisdictions have put in place legislation to regulate merger activities. There have been discussions that it is high time for Malaysia to implement a general merger control regime under the Malaysian Competition Act 2010. As it presently stands, general merger activities which do not fall within two specific sectors (will be discussed below) are not regulated and no prior sanction is required from the Competition Commission before a merger transaction takes place ...
In the corporate world, there is a novel type of enterprise labeled “startup,” which is known for its rapid growth, partly, because of the fact that it is highly related to the general use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the latest business trends ...
As a rule, an extraordinary notice of termination can be given to a severely disabled employee within one week of receiving the approval of the Integration Office. BAG, ruling dated February 27, 2020, 2 AZR 390/19 Employers may give an extraordinary and immediate notice of termination to a severely disabled employee even after the expiry of the two-week period applicable to extraordinary termination if the notice of termination is given immediately, i.e ...
In the course of the Corona crisis, a large number of companies have introduced short-time work. Funded by statutory unemployment insurance, short-time work is an instrument of labour market policy and pursues the aim of preserving jobs. This does not mean, however, that dismissals during a period of short-time work are legally excluded. In particular, dismissals based on personal grounds and conduct that are not related to short-time work remain possible ...
This 13th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in everything from constitutional law to tort liability. Shutdown cases show no signs of slowing down, and it seems probable that more will follow as some states reverse reopening plans in response to coronavirus outbreaks ...
We are seeing an increase in the use of warranty and indemnity insurance (W&I) on transactions, which is a theme we expect to continue as buyers target companies that are in financial distress in the wake of Covid-19. W&I has become commonplace in the UK M&A market as a way to ‘bridge the gap’ between buyer and seller when allocating risk ...
In a split decision with far-reaching implications for both government contractors and the private bar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Inserso Corporation v. U.S., recently addressed timeliness and waiver issues in the bid protest context. The facts of this significant case, the majority and dissenting opinions, as well as key takeaways for federal contractors and their attorneys, are discussed below. The Facts The U.S ...
On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not follow appropriate administrative procedures to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and, therefore, was unauthorized to do so. The decision was a 5-4 ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor ...
Foreign brand owners have often questioned whether they need a trademark registration in the PRC when engaging PRC factories for Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) activities. Previously, a pure OEM arrangement with proper authorisation from the owner of a trademark registration in the exporting country, would generally not be considered infringement of identical or similar PRC trademarks ...
How can undertakings access state aid and under what conditions can the state grant this aid? Concept of state aid State aid is any economic or financial support granted by the state, or from state resources, that gives an undertaking a selective advantage which may affect trade between Member States. State aid is, in principle, prohibited. Therefore, it must be notified to the European Commission in order for it to decide whether it is compatible with the internal market ...