On June 25, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued CFPB Bulletin 2013-06 to announce its "Responsible Business Conduct" policies. The bulletin lays out, in very general terms, suggestions for how companies might curry favor with the Bureau’s Office of Enforcement by engaging in voluntary self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation activities. The bulletin is available at [link to http://files.consumerfinance ...
After a prolonged internal debate, the Securities and Exchange Commission has unanimously proposed new rules for the regulation of money market mutual funds, also known as money market funds or money funds. If adopted, these rules would fundamentally change the basic characteristics of most money funds ...
The Commission has adopted, on 11 June 2013, a proposal for a Directive on damages actions for the infringement of EU and national competition laws. If adopted by the EU legislator, the Directive would require the EU Member States to enact implementing legislation within a two year period. Although the groundbreaking features of the proposal make its final adoption uncertain, such adoption would have enormous implications for private competition damages actions within the EU ...
It is known that the effects of better infrastructures on a country’s economy are enormous and this fact has been widely recognised in the ambitious Strategic Development Plan laid down by the Government of East Timor, which highlights that the “policy framework to 2020 will ensure that Timor has quality national infrastructures in place by the end of this decade ...
Nearly everybody talks about it. The Integrity in Public Contracts Act, also referred to as Bill 1, has been assented to on December 7, 2012 after an expedited review process of barely three months. Everybody is talking about it because the Act imposes on tenderers new requirements aiming at curbing fraud and corruption which, according to investigations of public authorities, undermine the construction industry ...
On June 13, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought a settled administrative proceeding against Revlon, Inc., for disclosure violations relating to a 2009 exchange offer subject to the going-private rules under Rule 13e-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.1 As described below, the SEC alleges that Revlon engaged in various acts described as "ring fencing" in an effort to conceal negative information about the transaction from minority stockholders ...
It’s not uncommon for a company that owns intellectual property (IP) such as trade marks, patents and copyright to grant another company the right to use that IP. The grant of the right to use IP is referred to as a ‘licence’, the company that grants the right is referred to as the ‘licensor’, and the company that gets the right is referred to as the ‘licensee’ ...
The Supreme Court held today in FTC v. Actavis that so-called “reverse payment” settlement agreements are subject to antitrust law’s “rule of reason” analysis. The Court, however, largely downplayed whether such analysis would require inquiry into what Justice Scalia deemed “the elephant in the room” at oral argument: the strength of the patent at issue ...
On June 10, 2013, a unanimous Supreme Court in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 569 U.S. ___ (2013), held that an arbitrator’s decision to allow class arbitration cannot be overturned if the decision was based on the interpretation of the parties’ contract. Even if the interpretation is incorrect, the Court will not overturn the arbitrator’s decision given its limited scope of review allowed under §10(a)(4) of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) ...
Here are select March 2013 rulings of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on commercial law:Corporation; separate personality. A corporation is an artificial entity created by operation of law. It possesses the right of succession and such powers, attributes, and properties expressly authorized by law or incident to its existence. It has a personality separate and distinct from that of its stockholders and from that of other corporations to which it may be connected ...
Here are select March 2013 rulings of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on civil law:Civil CodeContracts; contract of sale; perfection; essential elements; stages. A contract of sale is perfected at the moment there is a meeting of minds upon the thing which is the object of the contract and upon the price ...
An interview with Michał Barłowski, the partner in charge of the Bankruptcy and Restructuring practices at Wardyński & Partners, about planned amendments to Poland’s Bankruptcy & Rehabilitation Law. Restructuring is an alternative to bankruptcy. So why do we hear so little about effective restructuring and so much about liquidating bankruptcies? Michał Barłowski: The reasons are many and have various sources ...
On May 30, 2013, as had long been expected, the staff in the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission released Frequently Asked Questions concerning the SEC’s conflict minerals rules.1 The FAQs do not address some of the thorniest interpretive issues under the conflict minerals rules, but they do reinforce a number of developing practices and provide helpful guidance on a number of topics for SEC reporting companies.2 We summarize some of the key FAQs below ...
I. Background: 2010-2011 and the “First Wave” of Say-on-Pay SuitsIn 2010 and 2011, after the enactment of federal “say-on-pay” legislation in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,1 shareholder plaintiff firms filed several actions alleging breaches of fiduciary duties by directors of companies experiencing unfavorable say-on-pay votes during proxy season ...
The First Circuit recently held that complaints filed first under the False Claims Act’s first-to-file rule do not need to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)’s particularity requirement. See United States ex rel. Heineman-Guta v. Guidant Corp., 2013 WL 2364172 (1st Cir. May 31, 2013) ...
Attorney; a lawyer shall not assist in the unauthorized practice of law. Atty. Bancolo admitted that the Complaint he filed for a former client before the Office of the Ombudsman was signed in his name by a secretary of his by Text-Enhance" href="http://lexoterica.wordpress ...
Dear Reader, We have the pleasure to present the new edition of Doing Business in the Baltics. We hope that the information presented in this publication will provide businesses, investors and their advisers a better understanding of the advantages that the Baltic States have to offer ...
As previously described, in the fall of 2012 the NYSE and NASDAQ markets previously issued rules concerning the independence of compensation committee members and advisers as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These rules were approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2013 ...
On April 11 2013, the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue issued Revenue Regulations No 6-2013 (RR 6-2013) amending certain provisions of Revenue Regulations No 6- 2008, which provides for, among other things, therules involving the determination of the fair market value of shares of stock not listed and traded in the local stock exchanges ...
The Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) has recently introduced a raft of legislation to enhance its existing comprehensive anti-money laundering regime. The provisions largely follow the “Review of Financial Regulation in the Caribbean Overseas Territories and Bermuda” recently conducted for the British Government by KPMG (generally known as “the KPMG Report”) ...
Canada’s new anti-spam law (the CASL) is expected to come into force later this year. This Act is designed to create a safer online environment for individuals and businesses in Canada. From a business perspective, it will change how some routine daily activities – such as distributing commercial electronic messages (CEM) to customers – are executed. Currently, a majority of businesses rely on implied consent when they send CEM to customers ...
It is expected that Canada's new Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will come into force later this year, and with it will come significant changes for how businesses and individuals may send people "commercial electronic messages" (CEM), including emails or text messages.CASL aims to create a safer online environment by targeting issues relating to spam, such as unsolicited commercial messages, phishing and unauthorized installation of software ...
