On 27 November 2019 the Federal Council adopted a dispatch message to improve the legal framework governing distributed ledger technologies (DLT) in Switzerland. The Federal Council's objective is to increase legal certainty, remove obstacles to DLT-based applications and limit the risk of abuse. Parliament will examine the dispatch message in early 2020. The government's press release is available in English, German, French and Italian ...
Data protection in the United States is about to undergo a major change, and everyone needs to be ready. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), signed into law June 28, 2018, enters into effect Jan. 1, 2020. It creates several new obligations for many United States-based businesses with regard to the collection, treatment, and sale of personal information ...
Will the release of its digital currency be China’s next salvo in its bid for world domination?One of the biggest developments in global finance has recently occurred, but not enough people are talking about it. It features technology, money and a battle between global superpowers ...
As part of President Jokowi Widodo’s plan to issue “investment friendly” regulations, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (“MPW”) revoked MPW Regulation No. 09/PRT/M/2019 on Guidelines on Licensing Services for Foreign Construction Business Entities (“MPW Reg 9/2019”) on 18 November 2019 under MPW Regulation 17/PRT/M/2019 (“MPW Reg 17/2019”) ...
The fintech boom is changing rapidly both the way we work and how we conduct business. From managing our budgets and payments, to investments, insurance and obtaining loans and finance, fintech is steadily influencing everyday life. In a sector estimated to have attracted in excess of £2 billion in UK investment last year alone, Scotland hosts a thriving fintech community ...
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) becomes effective on January 1, 2020. As the CCPA deadline looms, businesses need to act now to be ready. In this article, we provide an overview of the CCPA, key changes to the final law, and steps businesses can take to be ready for the CCPA ...
Some are just donkeys with a horn.I will remember 2019 as the year when many unicorns were exposed as donkeys in disguise.Invoking the rarity and mystique of the mythical creature, a “unicorn” is the term the financial market coined for companies worth US$1 billion or more. The year opened with high hopes for such companies that sought an initial public offering (IPO) in the following months ...
Hackers delight in targeting U.S. companies during the holiday season triggering a year-end spike in cyber-attacks, with Carbon Black reporting a 57.5 percentincrease in attempted cyber-attacks during past holiday seasons. This year we can expect that threat actors across the globe will remain online throughout the holiday season, looking to capitalize on the distraction of the holidays and the increased internet traffic that comes with online holiday shopping ...
Under a new proposed rule, certain required disclosures could be provided electronically to all retirement plan participants, including former employees and beneficiaries. On October 23, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule intended to expand the use of internet technology to furnish ERISA-required disclosures to plan participants, and to reduce printing and mail expenses ...
Over the past years, the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/ Head of the National Land Agency (“Minister”) has issued several regulations on location permits due to the progressive system established by the government for the efficiency of investments and licensing. After the Online Single Submission (“OSS”) system became applicable, the Minister issued Regulation No ...
The era of cryptocurrencies has come: whilst they were initially used as a specific means of payment and as a source of investments other functions are now being explored, such as the possibility of cryptocurrencies being directly contributed to a company in the context of its incorporation ...
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) is one of the most powerful anti-fraud weapons available to the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). It permits treble damages and makes penalties available for each false claim the defendant submitted to a federal payor. The DOJ effectively deployed the FCA against mortgage lenders in the aftermath of the sub-prime lending crisis to obtain, in some cases, billion-dollar settlements ...
After sending cryptocurrency enforcement letters in the summer of 2019, the IRS recently issued Revenue Ruling 2019-24 and an accompanying frequently asked questions (FAQs) with additional guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrency. The Revenue Ruling addresses the tax treatment of cryptocurrency "hard forks", where one version of the currency is split from its original ledger and a new version of the currency is created with a new ledger ...
Almost at the same time as the much-noticed and controversially discussed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (see Update IP No. 12: Agreement on the Reform of the Digital Copyright Law) and barely noticed by the public, another European Directive on copyright law was adopted ...
The Government of Indonesia finally issued Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 on Organization of Electronic Systems and Transactions ("GR 71/2019") on 4 October 2019, gaining momentum as the country sees the rise of ‘Unicorns’ and President Joko Widodo boasting about the country’s digital economy. GR 71/2019 replaces Government Regulation No. 82 of 2012 with the same title and came into force on 10 October 2019. GR 71/2019 has 11 chapters and an extensive scope ...
In order to improve mortgage services to achieve among other targets, disclosure, punctuality, simplicity and affordability as well as to adapt them to the development of laws, technology and public needs, the government has issued Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/ Head of the National Land Agency (“MOA”) Regulation No ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has ruled, upon submission by the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof, OGH), with the decision of 3 October 2019 (Case C-18/18), that hosting providers, in this case Facebook, may be required by a court to seek and erase content which is identical or, under certain circumstances, equivalent to information previously found to be unlawful ...
Yesterday, in a closely-followed case, the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal brought by the Domino’s pizza chain, which sought to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision that entities selling online must make their websites and apps accessible to people with disabilities ...
On October 1, 2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that pre-ticked boxes do not constitute a valid consent by web users prior to storing cookies on their devices (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V. and Planet49 GmbH; Case C-673/17). The decision follows a challenge by the German Federation of the Consumer Organisations against the use of a pre-ticked checkbox which had, by default, consented to cookies on behalf of the user ...
On 3 October 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) published its groundbreaking ruling in case C-18/18 establishing that the EU enables national courts to order information societies such as Facebook to remove defamatory information. This also encompasses equivalent versions of previously declared illegal information. In doing so, the ECJ effectively held that EU law does not preclude injunctions issued by national courts from producing worldwide effects ...
There is an ongoing controversy relating to search engine advertising. In particular regarding the legality of purchasing search terms incorporating third-party trademarks. In seeking a reasonable legal standard, this article discusses the latest legal development in trademark, unfair trading practices, marketing, and competition Law ...
With the continuous and rapid advancement of technology and the increase in the use of digital technology, the provision and sale of digital content has become more and more appealing. This is evident from the emergence of a plethora of businesses the activities of which include engaging in the sale of digital content such as video games, ring back tones, music and videos as well as the rise in the demand for digital content sold through mobile phones ...
In its decision of 8 August 2019 (Ref.: 29 W 940/19), the Munich Higher Regional Court commented for the first time on the German Act on the Protection of Business Secrets (GeschGehG). In court proceedings in which claims arising from the law which came into force at the end of April 2019 are asserted, urgency should not be presumed pursuant to Section 12 (2) German Law against unfair competition (UWG) (analogously) ...
What’s happened? After much media coverage regarding the potential change in the law concerning properties owned in common in Dubai, Law 6 of 2019 was introduced on 4 September 2019 (the New Law). The New Law is an important development for Dubai as most real estate is held by way of property owned in common. That is, a real estate development that has been subdivided into apartments, offices, retail units and/or common areas ...
On the 21st of August 2019 Notification dated 21 August 2019 the General Department of Taxation (“GDT“) issued Notification 17517 GDT on the Second Reminder of the Payment of the Property Tax reminding owners of immovable property to file their annual Property Tax declaration before the deadline of 30 September 2019 ...
