On January 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its proposed rule barring most non-compete agreements that would apply to employees. We previously summarized the proposed rule here. The deadline for comments on the proposed rule is March 20, 2023. Comments can be submitted online at Regulations.gov or in writing to Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex C), Washington, DC 20580 ...
Following the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "CJEU") ruling which invalidated the "public access" feature of the Luxembourg Register of Beneficial Owners (the "RBE"), the Ministry of Justice required Luxembourg Business Registers (the "LBR") to immediately suspend all public access to the RBE pending the introduction of access rights more in line with the conclusions of the CJEU’s ruling ...
On January 16, 2023, the Commission for the Financial Market (“CMF”) announced the beginning of the implementation of Law No. 21,521, known as the “Fintech Law”, which will come into force on February 3, 2023. The entry into force of the Fintech Law is an extremely relevant milestone for the financial industry since, among other things, it establishes a regulatory framework for services based on Fintech technologies that were not regulated by our legislation ...
A recent California decision provides clarity on a lender’s ability to charge late fees for missed loan payments, which should be of interest to all lenders operating in California. In Honchariw v. FJM Private Mortgage Fund, LLC, et al.,[1] the California First District Court of Appeals held that late payment fees assessed against the entire unpaid principal balance of a loan constitutes unlawful penalties under California Civil Code Section 1671 ...
Hot on the heels of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 fully entering into force on 4 January 2023, the three streamlined routes under which UK public authorities will be able to give subsidies without having to assess each one against the subsidy control principles have recently been laid before Parliament: Subsidy Control Act 2022: Streamlined Routes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The routes cover (i) research development and innovation (ii) energy usage and (iii) local growth ...
Goldman Sachs can’t make profits in the FinTech sector, as reported recently in the Financial Times newspaper. Competition must be tough. Where is competition coming from? A source, still arguably on the edges, is BigTech, who are using FinTech essentials (digital technology and big data) to become a player in the financial services market ...
The Charity Commission has today (17 January) begun a public consultation on proposed new guidance for charities’ use of social media. It encourages charities to adopt a social media policy which is right for them. Social media presents charities with great opportunities to campaign and comment, to communicate the value they create and to fundraise. But these channels also present serious risks for charities ...
The Online Safety Bill is to be amended to include an offence for officers or senior managers of key tech companies who fail to comply with duties to protect children online. As currently drafted, the offence will apply to senior managers and officers (or those purporting to fulfil such functions) of "user-to-user services" (better known as social media sites, but they could include many online businesses, including forums, online gaming sites and cloud storage providers) ...
On 30 December 2022, the Central Bank of Myanmar issued letter No. FE-1/2861(Ka) concerning the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee Meeting Resolution No. (78/2022). The most pressing issue faced by foreign companies in Myanmar was resolved by the decisions made in paragraphs 1(d) of the meeting resolution no. 78/2022 ...
On November 22, 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") issued for public comments a draft revision to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Draft Revision", the "AUCL"), which reflects the government's ongoing efforts against unregulated unfair competition activities emerging in tandem with fast-evolving market forces that continue to give rise to new business forms and models ...
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (“DORA”) is part of the Digital finance package adopted in 2020 by the EU Commission to further enable and support the potential of digital finance in terms of innovation and competition, while mitigating the risks arising from it. DORA enters into force on 16 January 2023 ...
On 19 October 2022, the Council of the EU announced that political agreement (the ‘Political Agreement’) had been reached with the EU Parliament on the review of the Regulation on European long-term investment funds (the ‘ELTIF Regulation’) ...
Overview On 4 November 2022, the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia issued two new regulations, namely, Prakas 226 on the Formalities and Procedures of Inspection and Investigation under the Law on Competition (“Prakas 226”) and Prakas 227 on the Conditions and Procedures of Negotiated Settlement under the Law on Competition (“Prakas 227”) ...
Matters of cross-border company mobility are addressed at European Union level by means of Directive (EU) 2017/1132 (the “2017 Directive”) which provides for cross-border mergers and domestic divisions of public limited liability companies ...
This briefing sets out the key requirements of PIPA and the steps that your organisation can take to prepare for its implementation. PIPA coming into force PIPA was enacted in 2016 to regulate the use of personal information in Bermuda by individuals, companies, public authorities and other organisations ...
The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) recently launched “Ethics: Enduring or Evolving?”, the second installment of the FINEX Ethics Committee's book project focused on ethical challenges and issues of ethics in business. It includes an article on “Digital Ethics and the Philippine Law” by SyCipLaw Senior Partner and TMT expert Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez. In the article, Ms ...
Operating expenses (“OpEx”) and common area maintenance fees (“CAM”) are two important items in any commercial lease, but they are often overlooked after the decision is made on how to split up these fees. Typically, operating expenses are calculated and allocated based on a gross, modified gross, or triple net basis, with the tenant being responsible for a percentage of CAM based on the percentage of the total property they occupy ...
With the well-known challenges of the last ten months or so, market conditions deteriorated substantially over 2022 and the venture capital (VC) market became a far more challenging one in which to agree a valuation and raise money. While those challenges are not over, from speaking to VC clients and others, there's a cautious optimism that as 2023 progresses the market will slowly improve ...
Many government agencies set goals for their construction projects to be awarded to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE). The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) DBE certification program sets antidiscrimination regulations that states can implement for federal funding. The Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) is the certifying authority of DBEs (on behalf of the DOT) in Oregon ...
On January 11, 2023 the SEC Division of Investment Management issued an additional Marketing Rule FAQ. The newly issued FAQ addresses gross and net performance requirements applicable to private fund case studies, single investments and/or groups of investments, i.e. extracted performance. Specifically, the Question provides as follows: Q. When an adviser displays the gross performance of one investment (e.g ...
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the marketing of an NFT of a Johan Cruyff goal was misleading. The one-of-a-kind non-fungible token (NFT), entitled “In a Way, Immortal”, depicts Cruyff’s flying kick for Barcelona against rivals Atlético Madrid which was dubbed “The Phantom Goal” and earned Cruyff the nickname the "flying Dutchman". The NFT was auctioned and eventually sold for a reported €550.000 at Sotheby's ...
On 16th December 2022 the Bankruptcy Master released an update which advised that the restriction on filing new creditors' winding up petitions is likely to be lifted in the new term. The court has advised that further information will be issued to legal practitioners in advance of the new guidance ...
Ukraine is an EU candidate: Can we soon file patent applications for Ukraine at the European Patent Office? The European Council granted Ukraine EU candidate status on 23 June 2022. Will patents granted by the European Patent Office soon also apply in Ukraine? Not immediately, because on the one hand the candidate status legally creates neither rights nor obligations ...
