Issues surrounding the election of Directors of Public Companies gained the attention of Canadian Securities Regulators in the last years due to concerns expressed be large institutional directors that current Canadian Rules regarding the election of Directors were not Democratic nor aligned with current practices in other countries ...
Federal statutes and regulations impacting the banking industry run the gamut from a basic forgery to fraud and insider trading. Financial institutions need to be informed and know where to turn if illegal activity is discovered by bank management or if the bank is the focus of a federal investigation ...
On October 29, 2012, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) served private sector financial services company The Prudential Assurance Company Limited (“Prudential”) with a monetary penalty of £50,000 in connection with a serious violation of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA”). The violation concerned a mix-up involving Prudential customer details ...
What is an illegal contract and is it enforceable? If an illegal contract is unenforceable, does the party who received its benefit get to keep that windfall? The short answer to the first question is that a contract is illegal when it is either contrary to a statute or is contrary to public policy. Generally, illegal contracts are not enforceable. The answer to the second questions is “it depends” ...
A new Regulation on Corporations has recently entered into force in Chile (the “New Regulation”). It aims essentially to complement the provisions of the Law on Corporations, updating the rules established in the prior Regulation on Corporations, clarifying or specifying certain articles that raised questions, adjusting the applicable provisions to the latest legal amendments and making certain practical aspects easier ...
On 18 October the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) released a set of draft regulations designed to reduce the complexity involved in narrative reporting for large British companies and increase transparency. Changes will take effect from October next year, meaning quoted companies with reporting years ending on or after 1 November 2013 will need to change the form and content of their reports ...
As part of the new Flex BV Act that came into force in the Netherlands as per 1 October 2012, also a revised statutory dispute settlement procedure (wettelijke geschillenregeling) was introduced. This procedure can be used in two ways. Firstly, the procedure offers shareholders, under certain circumstances, the opportunity to force a shareholder to sell its shares (‘squeeze-out’ or uitstoting) ...
On 1 August 2012, the Indonesian Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Board (“Bapepam-LK”) issued a new regulation on Annual Reports of Public or Listed Companies, Bapepam-LK Regulation Number X.K.6. The regulation requires information on the primary and directly or indirectly controlling shareholders of listed companies, up to individuals, to be provided in the form of a scheme or diagram in their annual reports ...
UK Bribery Act: Serious Fraud Office publishes revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting An important announcement for multinational organisations with business links in the United Kingdom. The Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom has published revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting that take immediate effect ...
Meteorologists dubbed Hurricane Sandy a “perfect storm” or “superstorm” long before it even made landfall on the East Coast, and it lived up to those terms. Sandy brought gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain, and snow to much of the Eastern Seaboard and the Northeast, including densely populated areas such as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York City, and Boston ...
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) recently adopted a new EDGAR Filer Manual,1which provides that effective October 15, 2012, emerging growth companies under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”) must now use EDGAR to submit confidential draft registration statements ...
In general, corporate legislation in Canada provides that if a corporation engages in specific types of transactions, such as an arrangement or amalgamation, shareholders are entitled to vote against the transaction. If the transaction is nevertheless approved, shareholders can then exercise a right to dissent and be paid fair value for their shares. Last month, I blogged that a chambers judge in the Yukon had allowed beneficial shareholders to exercise a right of dissent ...
China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the largest arbitration commission in China, recently surprised the international arbitration community by prohibiting its two sub-commissions in Shanghai and Shenzhen to accept any further arbitration applications or otherwise to act in the name of CIETAC, just shortly after the new CIETAC Arbitration Rules have entered into effect on 1. May 2012 ...
Not having to convene a shareholders meeting makes the decision-making process more easy for shareholders. Under the Act on simplification and flexibilisation of rules governing Dutch BV's (the "Flex BV Act") that entered into force on 1 October 2012, it has become easier to pass shareholders resolutions outside a meeting ...
Editor’s Note: Since the DealThink series began, we have focused on various M&A and governance issues facing general counsel of public companies. We would like to broaden the discussion to include the expertise of “specialist” attorneys (e.g., tax, employee benefits, intellectual property) with whom general and outside corporate counsel will likely consult and rely upon during the course of an M&A transaction ...
As required pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the final rule issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in June 2012, the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) and NASDAQ each issued proposed rules on the independence of compensation committees and their advisers on September 25, 2012. The proposed rules are subject to approval by the SEC ...
On August 27, 2009, several amendments to the Mexican Commercial Code were published in the Federal Official Gazette (“DOF”), with the purpose of creating the Movable Guarantees Sole Registry (“Registro Único de Garantías Mobiliarias,” hereinafter referred to as the “RUG”), as a section of the Public Registry of Commerce dependent of the Ministry of Economy ...
Much has already been written on the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation, but there has been very little focus on the fundamental changes to the responsibilities and liabilities that the Regulation seeks to impose on data processors ...
On July 20, 2012, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the "Court") rendered a judgment that sheds new light on the shareholder nomination process for electing the directors of a business corporation.1 In fact, the Court confirmed that a corporation’s policy, which aimed to impose an advance nomination process at a shareholders’ meeting, was reasonable and did not infringe shareholder rights with respect to electing the directors of a corporation ...
Last Call: Do you have any Private Corporations Shares in your RRSP? The 2011 federal budget, which was tabled June 6, 2011 (after the defeated March 23, 2011 budget), proposed various broad anti-avoidance tax measures to counter the implementation of tax planning strategies involving investments in registered retirement savings plans (“RRSP”). One such anti-avoidance measure targets the shares of certain private corporations held in an RRSP after March 22, 2011 ...
In the next year, companies that work in the development of oil, natural gas or minerals will have to publicly make new disclosures of payments of $100,000 or more made to governments. The $100,000 threshold is on a project-by-project basis, and will require companies to provide details of the type and amounts of payments made ...
It is not uncommon in class actions for parties to reach a settlement that provides non-monetary relief to the plaintiffs and a payment of attorneys’ fees to class counsel. In August, however, a California federal court denied preliminary approval of such a settlement ...
On August 29, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission released proposed rules to permit general advertising and solicitation in certain private placement offerings as required by the recently enacted JOBS Act. The proposed rules permit issuers to advertise in connection with Rule 506 private placement offerings so long as the securities are sold only to accredited investors ...
Can a building name become a geographical indicator with the consequence that businesses operating from that building cannot include the name in their trade marks? The recent decision of the Federal Court in Mantra IP Pty Ltd v Spagnuolo [2012] FCA 769 has held that the mark "Q1" is inherently adapted to distinguish the services of the accommodation provider, Mantra IP Pty Limited (Mantra), even though "Q1" was also the name of the iconic high rise apartment in wh
In our December 2011 newsletter we reported on Hong Kong's Competition Bill. Subsequent to that newsletter, further revisions were made to the original Bill and we outline below the provisions now to be enacted. The Bill was passed on 14 June 2012 and will come into effect on a day to be appointed by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development ...
