A range of business support mechanisms have been introduced to face the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, the recent Law 75/2020 of 27 November has created a series of measures in the field of restructuring and insolvency procedures. The stand-out among these new procedures is the Extraordinary Business Viability Process (Processo Extraordinário de Viabilização de Empresas referred to here by it Portuguese initials, “PEVE”) ...
In a notable decision interpreting the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Alabama held that Chapter 13 debtors behind on their payments before March 2020 may seek modification of their plan if they suffered from COVID-19 related financial distress. In In re Fowler, No. 16-31791; In re Lewis, No. 19-32243, 2020 WL 6701366 (Bankr. M.D. Ala. Nov. 13, 2020), Bankruptcy Judge William R ...
On November 12, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court extended corporate attorney-client privilege protection to appropriate ex parte communications between defendant hospitals and their non-employee agents. The court’s decision in Hermanson v. MultiCare Health Sys., Inc ...
Facts The recent high court decision in Straits Bunkering Pte Ltd v Ketua Pengarah Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna Johor concerned an application with regard to the vessel MT Abbas, which had been arrested by the Southern Region Marine Department pursuant to Sections 491B(1)(k) and 491C of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 (MSO 1952).(1) Sections 491B(1)(k) and 491C of the MSO 1952 provide as follows: 491B ...
DISPUTE RESOLUTION The National Code (Revised 2020) Act 828 (“the Act”) came into force on 15 November 2020. It replaces its predecessor the National Land Code (Act 56 of 1965) that was in force since 1 January 1966. The Act was revised by the Commissioner of Law Revision under the authority of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 ...
British Virgin Islands entities and structures are frequently used to hold assets located onshore, outside the BVI. Sometimes these assets represent the proceeds of wrong-doing including breach of fiduciary duty, breach of express trust, or pure fraud. The vast majority of the 400,000 active BVI companies on the register tend to be holding companies, holding real property, investments, or shares in other companies including shares in trading companies ...
The Retail Industry team would like to provide you with an update on legal developments in the retail and consumer products industries as posted on the Hunton Retail Law Resource blog. If you wish to receive email alerts when new posts are published, please visit our blog and enter your email address in the subscribe field ...
On November 27, 2020, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 50, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolution No. 46/2020, which suspended the deadlines of certain procedural and material acts and the extension of mining titles. According to the new wording, the period of certain procedural and material acts as well as the tacit approval by the Agency is suspended from March 20, 2020 to December 31, 2020 ...
Following a decision of the Hamburg Regional Labour Court, the works council has an enforceable right of co-determination with the definition of staffing ratios – in accordance with § 87 exp. 1 No. 7 BetrVG. The co-determination right aims at avoiding an otherwise health-endangering overloading of the personnel ...
Regional Labor Court Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ruling of July 30, 2019, 5 Sa 233/18 It is up to the employer to decide how to react to a conflict situation in the company, regardless of the causes and responsibilities of the disputants. FACTS The parties dispute over the validity of transferring the plaintiff to another workplace to resolve an interpersonal conflict ...
The legal status of CBD, a naturally occurring compound found in the cannabis plant, is murky. Certain Member States are more restrictive about it than others. The Court of Justice of the EU has very recently provided clarification in the context of a preliminary ruling (case C-663/18 of 19 November 2020). This case revolves around CBD’s ban in France, after it had been imported from the Czech Republic where it was lawfully produced ...
In the recent judgment of Leung Kwok Hung (also known as “Long Hair”) v. Commissioner of Correctional Services [2020] HKCFA 37, the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) ruled in favour of Leung Kwok Hung (Leung) in his fight against the Commissioner of Correctional Services (Commissioner). After being convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, Leung, the appellant, was required to have his hair cut at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre pursuant to Standing Order 41-05 ...
On 18 November 2020, the Luxembourg Competition Council issued decisions against German biscuit manufacturer Bahlsen, as well as against the Luxembourg supermarket outlet Cactus and the internationally active Auchan and Delhaize groups for engaging in resale price maintenance agreements and distorting competition on the Luxembourg market. The decisions impose fines of in total EUR 3,3 million and mark the end of a five year long investigation process.Legal FrameworkArt ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union delivers judgments regarding the concept of “communication to the public” faster than legal scholars can read and dissect them. While we are eagerly awaiting the Court’s analysis of different types of hyperlinking, it has taken less than two months to follow Advocate General Hogan’s opinion regarding the emailing of evidence containing copyrighted works to a court in legal proceedings ...
On November 5, 2020, in Valeant Pharms. N. Am. LLC v. Mylan Pharms. Inc., No. 2019-2402, the Federal Circuit held that venue in Hatch-Waxman cases brought under 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(2)(A) is proper “only in districts where actions related to the submission of an Abbreviated New Drug Application (‘ANDA’) occur, not in all locations where future distribution of the generic products specified in the ANDA is contemplated.” Slip op. at 3 ...
Under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA), a Medicare Secondary Payer is the entity which has an obligation to pay medical expenses before Medicare. In the face of rising costs, legislation was passed in 1980 making Medicare a secondary payer to various primary plans in order to shift medical expenses to those Medicare believed should be the primary source of payment ...
British Government aims to forbid import of commodities from deforested areas as a consequence of international discussions focused on ESG. In 2019, the British Government hired the independent consultancy 'Global Resource Initiative' ("GRI") to evaluate actions to ensure a more sustainable economy for the United Kingdom ...
The Sharjah Court of Appeal recently declined to apply the principle of separability of an arbitration clause, on the basis that the underlying agreement (i.e. in which the arbitration clause was contained) was not defective or argued to be invalid by the appellant. This judgment has potentially significant implications for parties who intend to rely on an agreement which contains an arbitration clause to assert claims in court ...
On November 5, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court altered a 60-year provision of Washington’s Minimum Wage Statute when it issued its decision in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The court held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g), which exempted agricultural employers from paying overtime at a rate of 1.5 times the regularly hourly rate, violated article I, section 12 of the Washington State Constitution as applied to dairy workers ...
In Brown v. Morehouse College, a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the case’s dismissal, agreeing with the district court that while the plaintiff’s ethics complaints may have led to retaliation against him by the College, the complaints did not allege FCA fraud and therefore were not protected by the statute. No. 19-13773, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 33444 (11th Cir. Oct. 23, 2020) ...
This alert provides links to the latest insights and commentary on key energy and environmental issues from the Hunton Andrews Kurth team. Links to our most recent posts on the Nickel Report Blog for this month are below. Please subscribe to receive alerts when new posts are published by visiting our blog and entering your email address in the subscribe field or by following us on Twitter. For current Covid-19 related news updates please read more here ...
In the age of COVID-19, demand for surface wipes, sprays and similar products is at record levels. Retail stores have struggled to keep supplies stocked and shelves may once again be emptied when the winter flu season arrives. If schools and businesses reopen concurrently, the prospects of securing these products becomes even bleaker, which may re-fuel consumer stockpiling ...
