March 31, 2023 By: Michael Flynn and Brett Voets On March 30, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued the long-awaited final version of its rules on Small Business Lending under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.[1] The new rule imposes significant burdens and risks on lenders, and will likely result in significant amounts of loan-related data being made public, as discussed below ...
The Cambodia Competition Commission (“CCC”) has issued Decision on Pre-Notification Thresholds for Business Combinations dated 14 March 2023, which sets out the thresholds for Pre-Notification under the Law on Competition. The CCC has the power to amend the thresholds by written decision ...
The Judicial Chamber on Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has considered TrustForex LLC case (No. A40-167835/2021) concerning the essential issue of recovery of penalty for providing false representations while selling assets. We believe this case to be very important both for the court practice and for the business ...
By: Jeffrey M. Dennis Data privacy, sometime referred to as the protection of personal information, has developed into one of the most significant challenges facing the franchise industry. As the number of franchises in the United States continues to increase, franchisees and franchisors are becoming more reliant on customer information to grow and maintain their loyal customer bases ...
Whistleblowing or simply put, the act of drawing attention to or complaining about perceived wrongdoing, misconduct, unethical activity within one’s organisation has been a topic of great relevance in the last few years. While there is no federal law relating to whistleblowing in the UAE, there have been significant legal developments in this area. The Dubai Law No ...
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its final report on “guidelines of MiFID II product governance requirements” yesterday ...
Carey Olsen’s Singapore team has considered the first reported British Virgin Islands (BVI) case on the court’s jurisdiction to determine a just and equitable winding-up application when faced with an arbitration agreement between parties. The authors also examine the trend in the Cayman Islands and in Hong Kong on this issue ...
Starting from February 2022, the President of Russia has adopted several decrees restricting conclusion and performance of transactions involving foreign entities and individuals. In most cases such transactions now require approval from a special governmental commission. Today the Russian Ministry of Finance published draft law No ...
ALRUD experts have prepared this material for HR directors, compliance officers and heads of legal departments, detailing the obligatory and recommended actions that should be taken in the event of an occupational accident. The purpose of this step plan is to provide high-level guidance on how to protect the interests of affected employees, investigate occupational accidents and thus mitigate risks of administrative and criminal liability for the employer and its officers ...
On March 24, 2023, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ("HKEX") published its consultation conclusions ("Consultation Conclusions") regarding the proposed new listing regime for specialist technology companies ...
We previously provided an update regarding the enactment of a capital gains tax (the “Tax”) in the State of Washington (read about it here). In that article, we noted the Tax was subject to at least one lawsuit in Washington. That lawsuit resulted in the trial court striking down the Tax, which caused an appeal to the Washington State Supreme Court (the “Court”) ...
On March 17, 2023, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced it will be holding a Tribal Consultation on April 3, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m., Pacific Time. The Tribal Consultation will be held at the Reservation Economic Summit 2023 (RES 2023), in Caesars Palace ...
Paul Carney and Craig Thomas explore the impact of the Chancellor's 2023 Spring Budget on the taxation of pensions in the UK. The Chancellor’s budget statement on 15 March caused many to be surprised and some to be perplexed ...
Ensuring the safety and security of funds is a top priority for financial institutions worldwide. To this end, the South African Government has put in place various regulations to guide the operations of financial institutions. We have written several articles on the recent changes to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (“FICA”) and the regulations promulgated under FICA ...
Cyber criminals have developed new ransomware techniques to improve the efficiency and profitability of their attacks. These include targeting large and high-value entities such as governments and the health care sector (also known as “big game hunting”), and the selling of user-friendly ransomware software kits (also known as ransomware as a service) ...
As businesses continue to operate in an increasingly globalised economy, the transfer of personal data across international borders has become a critical aspect of many operations. However, with the latest legislative changes from the EU, it has become more challenging to transfer data lawfully to third countries. By now, you may have had requests to amend your contracts with international counterparts ...
The South African Government's new Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022 (“2022 Regulations”) have created uncertainty about how organs of state will identify "specific goals" in their procurement processes. While the regulations do not specifically require the consideration of B-BBEE, organs of state can still use it as a factor in preference point scoring, along with or instead of other goals like employment equity, green procurement, and local content and production ...
Originally published in West Virginia Banker With plaintiff attorneys seeing potential large dollar settlements and verdicts, along with increased regulatory scrutiny, banks need to review their overdraft practices. As noted by the American Bankers Association, banks resolve most customer inquiries and disputes informally, with a phone call or through digital channels. Banks are incentivized in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace to do so to maintain customer satisfaction ...
The Regulation’s overall goal is to encourage Member States to carry out Strategic Mineral Projects involving minerals such as e.g. Copper, Titanium, Nickel – battery grade, Lithium – battery grade, and Rare Earth Elements for magnets. The aim for the EU’s extraction capacity is set to be at least 10 % of the Union’s consumption of strategic raw materials ...
Namibia’s emerging green energy industry has the potential to create thousands of jobs and contribute billions to the country’s GDP. In November 2022, the Namibian Government released the Namibia Green Hydrogen and Derivatives Strategy Report (the “GH2 Strategy Report”) which drew significant attention from locals, who are anticipating the development of legislation for Namibia’s green hydrogen sector ...
The purpose of section 197 of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”) is to protect and maintain employment in circumstances where a transfer of business takes place. In terms of section 197 and section 197B(1)(b), a “transfer” means the transfer of a business by one employer (the old employer) to another employer (the new employer) as a going concern ...
Beneficiaries of UK, USA or other non-EU state subsidies will have to notify the European Commission under a new regime when engaged in certain mergers & acquisition (M&A) transactions or tendering for certain EU public contracts.This notification obligation commences on 12 October 2023. The transaction cannot be completed or the procurement contract entered into, until consent has been received from the European Commission following notification ...
Debtors hoping to discharge their obligations in bankruptcy may find a new hurdle based on the US Supreme Court’s Feb. 22 ruling. Relying on the plain language of the Bankruptcy Code, and Congress’s use of passive voice, the Supreme Court held that funds obtained through fraud, regardless of who committed such fraud, are not dischargeable through bankruptcy ...
