GERMAN GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO INCREASE HURDLES FOR ACQUIRING GERMAN COMPANIES IN STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT BUSINESS SECTORS On April 8, 2020, the German government adopted the draft bill of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs to amend the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz, AWG) ...
After the federal government’s initial rollout of its COVID-19 Economic Response Plan to provide economic measures to stabilize the economy (previously described in our blog post here), a number of voices from Canada’s business community have warned of program eligibility gaps and, in particular, that early and growth stage technology and innovation businesses have fallen through the cracks ...
In an earlier post, we started discussing the IRS’ “John Doe” summons to Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange, to obtain information about every Coinbase user, who, at any time during the period of January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2015, conducted transactions in a convertible virtual currency as defined in IRS Notice 2014-21. One such user filed a motion to intervene in the proceeding and to quash the IRS’ summons ...
While the Trump administration looks to pass legislation aimed at Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), a lawsuit involving the extent of the CFPB’s authority and whether it can impose a $109 million penalty on a group of companies is continuing to be fought in a D.C. courtroom. In June 2015, PHH Corporation and a group of other companies asked the D.C ...
Florida legislature passes bill to add virtual currencies to money laundering statute in response to last year’s court ruling that bitcoin can’t be the basis for money laundering charges Last year, a Miami judge dismissed criminal charges against a Florida-based bitcoin seller who had been caught in a sting in which undercover law enforcement officers engaged him to convert cash into bitcoin. They told him they intended to use the bitcoin to buy stolen credit card numbers ...
If you haven’t been paying any attention for the last two weeks, you may have missed that on February 3, 2017 President Trump signed an Executive Order setting forth his administration’s core principles for regulating the United States’ financial system. The order seems to be the first step in fulfilling his campaign promise to change Dodd-Frank, the Obama-era financial law that was enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. The order contains three sections. 1 ...
On February 24, 2017, President Trump issued another executive order designed to further his administration’s agenda to reduce regulations. Entitled “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” the executive order continues to make clear that “[i]t is the policy of the United States to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people ...
A West Virginia federal district court recently addressed a plaintiff’s claims that her reverse mortgage violated at least two statutes and West Virginia common law. The plaintiff was one of two borrowers on that mortgage and sued the mortgage lender and its servicing affiliate. The servicer moved to dismiss. The court granted the motion in part and denied it in part ...
Late this afternoon, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia issued its decision in State v. AFL-CIO and upheld the constitutionality of West Virginia's “Right-Work-Act” (the Workplace Freedom Act). Justice Jenkins delivered the opinion in which our high court reversed the Circuit Court of Kanawha County and remanded the matter back to that lower court with instructions to enter Summary Judgment in favor of the State ...
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals makes clear that third parties may not sue under the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act for collection attempts On May 17, 2017, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued a unanimous decision that affirmed a trial court’s order granting summary judgment to a collector in a lawsuit brought by a third party over collection calls made to her home that were intended to reach another person living there. In Young v ...
The Ministry of Home Affairs (“MHA”) issued an order on April 15, 2020 containing the revised consolidated guidelines on the measures to be taken by the Central and State Governments for containment of COVID 19 (“Revised Guidelines”). The order/ Revised Guidelines specify the economic activities which will be permitted after April 20, 2020 (except in containment zones) ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a burst of COVID-19-related guidance documents to facilitate expanded availability of medical products during the current public health emergency created by COVID-19. FDA-regulated products under these temporary policies include: PPE, diagnostic tests, hand sanitizers, disinfectant devices, remote monitoring devices, ventilators, and electronic thermometers for clinical use ...
We have previously reported on the order that adopted the extraordinary measures under the COVID-19 health emergency declaration, published on March 31, 2020 (the “Order”), and the Technical Guidelines regarding certain essential activities described in Order, published on April 6, 2020 ...
Introduction In late 2019, the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) launched the Abu Dhabi Local Content (ADLC) Program in a trial phase. In April of 2020, the IDB announced implementation of the ADLC Program, which will apply to more than 1,244 governmental and semi-governmental tenders worth approximately AED 15 billion ...
Is your firm monitoring compliance with the liquid capital thresholds continuously? As the financial resilience of some firms is being tested in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, it is timely for us to remind clients that a HK SFC licensed firm’s “liquid” capital must always exceed its “required” liquid capital and that it must formally notify the SFC "as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event within one business day of becoming aware”, if, am
The Superintendence of Finance of Colombia issued External Circular 015 of 2020, whereby instructions related to the treatment of subsidy resources drawn by the State through Credit Institutions or Specialised Electronic Deposit Societies (SEDPES) within the framework of the Solidarity Income Programme are detailed ...
Through Circular 4011 of 2020, the Ministry of Mines and Energy presents the considerations regarding the application of the exceptions to the restriction of free movement for the Mining Sector, as established in Article 3 of Decree 531 of April 08, 2020, by means of which"(...) it gives instructions under the health emergency caused by the Coronavirus COVID-19 and set measures for the maintenance of public order ...
The Superintendence of Finance of Colombia (SFC) introduced, by means of External Circular 035 of December 27th, 2019, the automatic authorization of collaboration agreements for the promotion of foreign financial services or products entered into by a local stock brokerage firm or a local financial corporation and a foreign financial entity provided they comply with the following requirements ...
The Superintendence of Notaries and Registry and The National Civil Registry Authority issued new measures through Ruling 041 of 15 April 2020 for the prevention of spreading the Coronavirus COVID-19. These measures followed previous regulations issued through Rulings 031 and 037 of March 2020. The new regulation reminds who can request a birth certificate by presenting the certificate of live birth as provided in the law ...
Measures taken for water, sewage and sanitation public utilities, within the framework of the State of Emergency ...
In accordance with the schedule of the Permanent Bidding Process ("PPAA"), the National Hydrocarbons Agency ("ANH") published on April 17 the final list of qualified companies to participate in the fourth cycle of this process, with which it is expected to reactivate the economy in Colombia ...
The Plurinational State of Bolivia, within the framework of its governmental powers and in accordance with the Declaration of Sanitary Emergency and Quarantine established in recent days, has determined to strengthen the latest measures. The government has conviniently declared that the total quarantine, extends until April 30, 2020, maintaining the suspension of public and private activities ...
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has announced the Tech Startup Stabilization Fund—a $3 million fund that will provide capital and support for Michigan tech startups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. ID Ventures is administering the fund and accepting applications from tech startups across the state at TSSFund.com ...
On March 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law a $2 trillion emergency relief bill to ease the economic impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) and support response efforts. The CARES Act[1] included an allocation of $80 million in funding to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to continue its COVID-19 response efforts. The additional agency funding will be used, in part, for the development of medical countermeasures and vaccines ...
