This seventh edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees a continuation of the trend we identified last week: shutdown challenges, workers' compensation claims, and wrongful death lawsuits have dominated the past week’s news cycle. We expect these latter two types of cases, which we consider more broadly as COVID-19 exposure cases, to pick up significantly as the country reopens over the next several weeks ...
The 50th Earth Day has passed this year under the shadow of a global pandemic, where the immediacy of human health has eclipsed, for now, the focus on the long-term health of the planet and humanity’s place within it that had begun to preoccupy businesses and investors. From a corporate governance perspective, that is reasonable, as risks to short-term survival take precedence over the long-term planning and risk mitigation demanded by more epochal trends like climate change ...
The order described below is a follow-up to the order establishing the strategy for the reopening and return to social, educational, and economic activities, including additional industries to those considered essential, published on May 14, 2020 (the “Order”). (Our alert on the Order can be found here ...
The Abu Dhabi Global Market has announced amendments to its Companies Regulations. The Companies Regulations 2020 (2020 Regulations) repeal the Companies Regulations 2015 (as amended). We have summarised below the key changes under the 2020 Regulations.Companies Regulations 2020 Effect of amendmentSection 3One of the ways in which a restricted scope company can be incorporated is if the founding members are a group of people who are from the same family (as approved by the Registrar) ...
The DMCC Authority recently passed DMCC Guidelines 1 of 2020 (DMCC Guidelines) setting out what actions DMCC employers can take with respect to their employees during the COVID-19 Precautionary Measures Period. DMCC entities can: • Request employees to work remotely and implement means to monitor them (without infringing their privacy). Working remotely does not however apply to key employees working in Vital Industries ...
On Monday, 4 May 2020, the government submitted an amendment to the Compensation Bonus Act to the Chamber of Deputies. The amendment should support, in addition to self-employed individuals (sole proprietors), certain shareholders in limited liability companies. This article provides details on the requirements, forms of application, and the amount of compensation ...
At its meeting on April 30, 2020, the government approved the abolition of the 4% real estate acquisition tax and related changes in the Income Tax Act. The content of the proposal of the Ministry of Finance is described below. However, there are likely to be some adjustments to this wording as a result of the coalition agreement. According to the media, the change should concern the maintenance of the tax deduction of interest on real estate acquired until the end of 2021 ...
The government has started to announce the dismantling of certain Covid19 measures and from Monday, April 27, 2020, it now allows business trips for foreigners to the Czech Republic, in respect of which business people were mounting pressure therefore. However, it set out a number of conditions and rules, which are further modified. The original Government Crisis Measure No. 443 was repealed on 1 May 2020 and replaced by Government Crisis Measure No. 495 ...
The European Commission recently issued guidelines on mobile applications supporting the fight against COVID-19 in relation to data protection. Mobile applications commonly installed on smartphones can act as a support mechanism for health authorities at the national and EU level in monitoring and managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and are particularly important in easing measures to reduce the spread of the disease ...
Price moratorium on rent from apartments - rents cannot be increased! On 24 April 2020, a moratorium on rental prices of apartments, issued by the Ministry of Finance (“MF”) came into force, which was adopted in the form of Government Decree No. 202/2020 Coll. This is a protective measure for tenants, which stipulates that the rent for an apartment cannot be increased for a limited period of time. This price moratorium is related also to Act No. 209/2020 Coll ...
The state of emergency in the Czech Republic was extended until May 17, 2020. What does this mean? At its meeting held on 28 April 2020, the Chamber of Deputies decided to extend the state of emergency until 17 May 2020. By Resolution No. 194 (published in the Collection of Laws under No ...
A new BIG GUARANTEE SCHEME was introduced in Slovakia in a form of (i) guarantees for bank loansand (ii) remissions of guarantee premiums as per new Temporary Framework for State aid recently adopted by the European Commission to support the economy in COVID-19 outbreak and via adoption of an amendment (the “Amendment”) to Act No. 67/2020 Coll ...
In planning for the post-quarantine return to business activities, the Ministry of Labor (MITRADEL, for its initials in Spanish) based on Executive Decree No. 78 of March 16, 2020, has required business to create Special Committees on Health and Hygiene for the Prevention and Care of COVID-19. These committees must include representatives for both management and labor ...
This is a briefing on the issuances of the Philippine government as of May 13, 2020 about the imposition of a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) over Metro Manila and other high-risk areas in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic ...
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”). The CARES Act, among other things, aims to provide relief to tenants and borrowers who participate in HUD’s housing programs. This alert highlights those provisions that address such multifamily housing ...
The order described below is a follow-up to the order published on April 21, 2020 (the “Order”), that extended the immediate suspension of all non-essential activities in the public, private, and social sectors until May 30, 2020. (Our alert on the Order can be found here) ...
In order to stem the spread of COVID-19 in Latvia the emergency situation is extended until 9 June 2020. Until then restrictive measures established by the Government that have serious impact on all sectors of the national economy shall be in effect. The rental housing market is no exception and has encountered a sharp drop in rent and significant changes to the situation on the lease market ...
Join our Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights team and special guests Karlene Archer from Karlene Archer Law and Andrea Cobery, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at U.S. Bank, for a discussion of bankruptcy servicing best practices in the time of the coronavirus. We will offer legal insights and practical guidance related to providing notice of forbearance plans in bankruptcy courts ...
On May 13, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) issued an update to the Frequently Asked Questions document (“FAQs”) relating to its Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), originally published on April 2, 2020 and updated regularly thereafter, providing additional guidance on the PPP Certification of Necessity Safe Harbor ...
The implementation of travel restrictions, lock-downs, stay-at-home orders, and curfews, in an attempt to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 virus, has led to delays in the completion of construction projects. Contractors are thus faced with worrying about the potential implications of such delays ...
The long-awaited government enactment on the holding of the general meeting of shareholders in the context of COVID-19 outbreak was finally passed in the form of the Government Emergency Ordinance No. 62/2020 that entered into force on May 8 (Ordinance 62) ...
1. Introduction The crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has called for unprecedented measures also in relation to the enforcement of competition law. At the national level, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato – “ICA”) has put in place several initiatives to support undertakings and protect consumers during the current emergency. 2 ...
“We continue to work closely with Member States to ensure that European businesses have access to urgently needed liquidity”, said the vice-president of the European Commission (“Commission”) Margrethe Vestager in connection with the amendment to the Temporary Framework on State aid adopted on 8 May 2020 ...
This summary draws together Beccar Varela’s reports on the coronavirus (COVID-19) legal news which may affect corporate law in Argentina. This edition brings together the reports sent between 05.02.2020 and 05.08.2020. Our COVID-19 Resource Center provides shortcuts to our circulars and links to relevant external websites. We have established a work team to coordinate attention to specific queries about how COVID-19 can affect business continuity ...
It is September 2020—hopefully a post-pandemic world. Your company has successfully weathered the storms of crisis, and social and economic life is slowly recovering its previous pace. Most people work at the office again, and you are on your way there. Before arriving at 9 am, you usually stop by the corner coffee place to have a morning espresso and browse the daily news. But at 8:15 am you get a call from the office ...
