IntroductionOn July 23, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia1 (the “District Court”) upheld Rule 13(p) (the “Rule”) under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). This Rule imposes investigative and public disclosure requirements on companies that use “conflict minerals” in their manufactured products ...
Use of a domain name: is it a form of advertising? Following the decision in Case C-657/11 (Belgian Electronic Sorting Technology BV v Bert Peelaers, Visys NV), the rules of fairness imposed by European Directives 84/450 and 2006/114 on misleading and comparative advertising will extend to cover not just the content of a web site, but the domain name at which it is registered as well. See our commentary here ...
Under EU Directive 2001/29 on the harmonisation of copyright law, Member States grant authors, performers, producers and broadcasting organisations exclusive rights to authorise or prohibit reproductions of their own works ...
There is no centralised data available on M&A in the Philippines. However, based on general investment data compiled by investment promotion agencies (such as the Board of Investments (BOI) of the Philippines) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), total approved foreign direct investment (FDI) for 2012 reached 289.1 billion Philippine pesos, which surpassed the previous year’s record level of 258.2 billion Philippine pesos by 12 per cent ...
Businesses in the UK have for some time been subject to strict rules on misleading advertising, contained in the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (the “BPRs”) ...
The ICSA has published new guidance on terms of reference for audit, remuneration, nomination, risk and executive committees, as well as new guidance on matters reserved for the board. The new guidance notes have been revised to reflect the updated editions of the UK Corporate Governance Code (“Code”) and FRC Guidance on Audit Committees published in September 2012 and which apply to all companies with a premium listing with reporting periods beginning on or after 1 October 2012 ...
The ABI has published a report on improving corporate governance and shareholder engagement. The report is a critical evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of the main elements of corporate governance, including: • The role of the non-executive in providing constructive challenge. • How institutional investors hold companies to account. • The relationships between, and responsibilities of, asset managers and asset owners ...
Decree-Law 2/2005 of 27 December, which approved the Mozambican Commercial Code, makes it possible for Mozambican or foreign individuals or clients to set up business in Mozambique in one of six different ways: (i) general partnership (Sociedade em Nome Colectivo); (ii) limited partnership (Sociedade em Comandita); (iii) capital and industry partnership (Sociedade de Capital e Indústria); (iv) quota company (Sociedade por Quotas); (v) single person quota company (Sociedade Unipessoal por Quotas)
On the 19th of July, CMVM Regulation no. 4/2013 on the corporate governance of the issuers of shares admitted to trading in Portugal (“Issuers”), and a new version of the CMVM Corporate Governance Code amending the code in effect since 2010 (“2013 Corporate Governance Code”), were published. Although the aforementioned CMVM Regulation no ...
Personal data regulation is a recently developed topic in the legal realm. In 1970, the first laws on the matter were issued in Europe and North America. Specifically, the first data protection law called the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz was issued in Germany on October 7, 1970, and the same year the United States Congress issued the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which controls the collection, use and redistribution of any consumer information ...
The insolvency of one or other of the parties to a dispute has become commonplace in recent times, particularly in construction related disputes. Practitioners are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the implications of insolvency on procedure and the potential remedies available ...
The Pensions Regulator has issued revised codes ofpractice and guidance on reporting the late payment of contributions to ensure a system of effective monitoring of contributions in money purchase work-based and personal pension schemes. The revised codes, which are designed to support auto-enrolment, are expected to come into force this autumn ...
Although non-compliance with the Consumer Protection Act (the “CPA”) is generally sanctioned by the nullity of the CPA non-compliant clauses, or of the contract in its entirety, in cases involving written notices of forfeiture of the benefit of the term, the courts have sometimes decided to maintain the validity of the non-compliant notices if they were not prejudicial to the consumer’s rights. The following two judgment support this view ...
Internal investigations are a central part of the crisis management response, and whilst the form and structure of the investigation will depend on the type of crisis, investigations will generally focus on identifying root causes and those with responsibility for the crisis ...
ICANN is expected to announce the first set of successful applications and list of new generic top level domains later this summer. Before the new generic top level domains can be delegated, the applications need to go through an initial evaluation phase and any objections against those applications need to be addressed. Infact, the first decisions on legal rights objections to applications for new generic top level domains were only recently published by WIPO ...
In September 2012, we reported that the Supreme Court of British Columbia had rendered a judgment1 confirming that a corporate policy imposing an advance nomination process for a shareholders’ meeting was reasonable and did not infringe the shareholders' rights relating to the election of the corporation's directors (“Advance Notice Policy”) ...
Statute of limitations for appeal of public auction contractsThe Higher Commercial Court recently clarified several issues relating to the statute of limitations for appeals of public auction contracts. (Higher Commercial Court of Ukraine Resolution 10 ("On Certain Practical Issues of Statute of Limitation Application"), May 29 2013 ...
On 12 April 2013, the Indonesian Capital Investment Coordinating Body (BKPM) issued a new Regulation of the Head of the BKPM No. 5 of 2013 on the Guidelines and Procedures for Permit and Non-Permit Capital Investment (“Reg ...
The passion Brazilians have for football is nothing new. As children, we learn the game and argue over the rules, which are often anything but black and white and, on occasion, are difficult to apply. That’s true even for referees, who, well into the 21st century, are still barred from employing the full array of technologies available to make their work easier. In contrast to other sports, the rules governing football evolve very slowly ...
While arbitration offers an excellent means for parties to get their disputes settled faster than in traditional courts, how you draft the arbitration clause in a document is critically important for a positive outcome – should a dispute arise. Legal agreements often have a clause indicating that parties agree to settle any disputes arising from the arrangement in arbitration. The text for this clause is frequently supplied by a local arbitration institute ...
An expansion strategy doesn’t always need to be M&A driven. Hunton & Williams LLP partners Robert Acosta-Lewis and Susan Failla make the case for strategic alliances. When considering expanding into emerging markets, companies often look to traditional M&A opportunities or explore possible distribution or sales representation relationships. While both of these avenues may offer potential advantages, they also carry risks and limitations ...
