In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the business community is faced with unprecedented threats to their cyber-infrastructure and data. Sensitive data, in particular, will be vulnerable to security breaches as a result of reduced human power under emergency legislation. Moreover, criminal hackers will be looking to capitalize on such vulnerabilities at a time like this ...
Both houses of the United States Congress have now passed the CARES Act and sent it to the President for his expected signature. Among the provisions in the 880-page Act are critical ones dealing with aid to small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced its temporary policy regarding environmental enforcement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy is retroactive to March 13, 2020, and will apply for the foreseeable future, until seven days after EPA gives notice that the policy will terminate. The policy applies to actions for which EPA has federal enforcement authority ...
Introduction Covid-19 is a force majeure event, meaning an extraordinary, unexpected and unforeseeable event, which is certainly not attributable to the voluntary conduct of an entrepreneur who is currently undergoing a restructuring or insolvency procedure and now faced with the Covid-19 crisis ...
In Michigan, additional coronavirus relief resources are available through the Michigan Small Business Relief Program established by the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) and administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) as either loans or grants. Separately from relief offered by the U.S ...
On March 25, 2020, the U.S. Senate voted to approve the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities (CARES) Act, an economic stimulus package addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (the “Act”). The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve the Act in its current form, with the President signing it into law shortly thereafter ...
The Government of Colombia, using its emergency powers, issued Decree 482 on March 26, 2020, to take steps to protect the transportation industry and to ensure its viability during the COVID-19 emergency ...
For the aviation industry, the Ministry of Transport has adopted the following measures: • To expedite the return of balances in favor of airlines that have been claimed before the tax authority. • To lay off, at the maximum level permitted by law, the air traffic controllers, firefighters, and aviation technical staff ...
In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Government of the Slovak Republic has adopted several restrictive measures which may, in contractual relationships governed by the Civil Code, cause impossibility of t debtor’s performance.[1]In this alert we focus in more detail on the issue of additional impossibility of performance and subsequent cessation of obligation due to the spread of COVID-19 and adoption of the related preventive measures ...
In some areas, intellectual property will experience a period of slowdown in activity, at least in the near future. We look at this in more detail below. However, this does not mean mandatory registration of industrial property will come to a halt because, with many bodies, including the Portuguese INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), registration is done online ...
In the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the scale of measures to protect public health and their consequences are starting to be felt by businesses and, in particular, they are suffering from strains on cash flow. As a result, on Wednesday, 18 March, the Portuguese Government approved and presented a package of economic measures to support companies ...
This new framework will remain in force until 31December 2020 and it allows Member States to provide: a) Aid in the form of direct grants, selective tax advantages and repayable advance payments, up to EUR 800,000 per company, to companies in most economic sectors to meet their urgent liquidity needs; b) State guarantees for loans taken out by companies from banks and the framework defines, among other possibilities, minimum guarantee premiums for this purpose; TYPE OF BENEFICIARY MARG
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the existence of a pandemic. The main focus is now to guarantee the safety of workers and employees. However, the potential repercussions for the activities of companies – in the short and medium term – are vast, complex and, in certain cases, they conflict with each other. PLMJ has created a multidisciplinary team dedicated to analysing the problems facing businesses ...
At a time when there is a huge reduction in their income, companies will have to cope with enormous pressures on their liquidity. In this context, bond issuances should continue to be a growing way for companies to obtain finance, in particular, in the case of assets eligible under the European Central Bank’s (ECB) purchasing programmes ...
The impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe remains a significant concern in every aspect of business – and the representation and warranty (R&W) insurance market is no different. The following Frequently Asked Questions are designed to address some of the more common questions that have arisen since the outbreak of the pandemic.As always, advice in this area is fact-sensitive ...
We knew this year was going to be an especially bad one for the flu. In its November 2019 issue, Scientific American, one of the country's leading science publications, included a twenty-page article titled "The Influenza Outlook", which highlighted the escalating threat of influenza for the year 2020. Unfortunately, at present, the emergence and spread of the novel coronavirus makes the flu pale by comparison ...
Last week, in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Premerger Notification Office of the Federal Trade Commission (the “PNO”) announced temporary e-filing procedures for the submission of HSR filings and a temporary suspension of early termination requests. Key Takeaways: As of March 17, 2020, the PNO and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) will accept only electronic submissions of HSR filings (no paper or DVD filings) ...
In the wake of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Congress sought to pass a stimulus bill designed to mitigate the negative impact on the U.S. economy of measures taken to slow the spread of the virus.Hopes of a quick passage of the bill dimmed on March 21, when the Democrat and Republican negotiators in the Senate could not agree on worker protections or stock buyback restrictions for businesses that received funding, among other issues ...
The identification of the food and drink sector as key in the response to the COVID-19 (C19) crisis seems obvious and unquestionable. Scratch the surface though and questions emerge, perhaps unsurprisingly because of the haste with which the emergency legislation was passed. The starting point recognised in the Coronavirus Bill was that the food supply chain involved not just producers but also intermediaries ...
The General Meeting during the State of Emergency? Can it take place? And can it be convened? Do crisis measures contain an exception for meetings of the statutory organs of the company (e.g ...
The awaited regulation by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment on issuance of the Certificate for emergency situations (“CES”) has been adopted through Order 791/2020 relating to the granting of emergency certificates to the economic operators whose activity is affected in the context of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic published on 25 March ...
INVIMA adopts measures aimed at efficiently facing the current health situation related to COVID-19, optimizing the processes that allow the commercialization of products necessary for the prevention of the virus and the evaluation of protocols to prevent it. 1. Declaration of products as Vital Unavailable. Due to the shortage of some supplies in general, the authority has declared that masks, antibacterial gel and disinfecting solutions as Vital Products Not Available ...
Decree 457 of 2020 issued a mandatory preventive isolation order for every resident of the Republic of Colombia, as a consequence of the economic, social and ecological emergency that has been declared in the national territory. In this regard, it is required to regulate the mandatory isolation ordered by Decree 092 of 2020 in Bogotá D.C ...
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection dictates measures tending to guarantee the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19 The Ministry of Health and Social Protection has issued Decree 476 of 2020 by which it has decided to make the necessary changes for regulatory requirements to have flexibility in all proceedings related with Pharmaceutical, Phytotherapeutics, Medical Devices, Biomedical Equipment, In-Vitro Diagnostic Reagents, cosmetics and products of Domestic hygie