On February 1, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its revised annual threshold that determines whether companies may be required to notify federal antitrust authorities about a proposed merger or acquisition due to the size and value of the transaction. For the first time since 2010 and a reflection of the state of the economy, the annual threshold has been reduced rather than raised, from $94 million in 2020 to $92 million for 2021 ...
The Electronic Communications Code was subject to a wholesale re-write in 2017, with the intention of facilitating the faster roll-out of the UK’s digital communications infrastructure. Three years on, the government has commenced a consultation on proposals to revise aspects of the Code to ensure it is fit for purpose ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. One sector that has performed robustly during the pandemic is build-to-rent (BTR), with demand set to continue in the coming years as investors look to this sector to deliver long-term returns. According to a recent report, over £1 ...
The 2021 tax assessment of real and personal property will be determined by local Assessors in February, at which time a Notice of Assessment will be issued and mailed to property owners. Property owners should make sure to check the mail for a copy of the Notice in order to determine whether an appeal of their taxable value should be filed ...
On Jan. 19, 2021, the two recent final rules issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding changes to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law) regulations (respectively the OIG Rule and the CMS Rule, collectively the Final Rules) became effective ...
Key Points Eviction protections that were set to expire January 31 have been extended to June 30, 2021 New notice requirements took effect February 1 Landlords may not charge late fees or increase rent or fees for tenants who attest to COVID-19-related financial distress State Rental Assistance Program may pay 80 percent of a qualified tenant's rent if landlord forgives the remainder On January 29, 2021, California Senate Bill 91 became law, effective immediately ...
Late last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a draft guidance intended to assist regulated entities and permitting authorities in applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, concerning Clean Water Act (“CWA”) jurisdiction over discharges to groundwater ...
Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group is pleased to present the False Claims Act: 2020 Year in Review, our annual review of significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases, developments and trends. Despite the pandemic and the smallest recoveries for the Department of Justice in over a decade, FCA enforcement remains robust. As always, the healthcare industry remains the most frequent subject of FCA cases and investigation ...
Leases often include language that gives a tenant the option to purchase the leased property during or at the end of the lease term. The Michigan Supreme Court has held that these options to purchase, or “options” as they are commonly referred, are “simply a contract by which the owner of the property agrees with another that he shall have a right to buy the property at a fixed price within a specified time ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. If somebody asked me at the start of 2020 whether I could join a meeting by video, my immediate thought would have been: “no, that sounds far too difficult and I don’t think we really have the technology to do that” ...
The Government of the UAE made another milestone announcement on 30 January 2021, announcing a procedure for the granting of citizenship to foreign nationals in a bid to retain talent in critical sectors and to expand and diversify the economy. Nationality and citizenship in the UAE are governed by Federal Law No. 17 of 1972 Concerning Nationality and Passports, as amended by Federal Law No. 10 of 1975 and Federal Decree-Law No ...
On January 22, 2021, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 55, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolutions No. 28/2020 and 46/2020, which deal with the suspension of deadlines of certain procedural and material acts under its competence, and the extension of the terms of mineral titles, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic ...
Following the bioeconomy trend, the National Policy of Payment for Environmental Services was published, establishing the payment for services that benefit the maintenance, recovery and improvement of ecosystemic services, such as provision services (e.g. water supply), and regulation services (e.g. climatic change programs). On January 14, 2021, the Federal Law No. 14,119 ("Law") establishing the National Policy of Payment for Environmental Services ("PNPSA") was published ...
The information listed below is categorized by topic for your convenience and includes content from the previous week. Bradley is actively monitoring and engaging with relevant federal, state or local entities on issues related to the coronavirus. Please contact one of the authors if you have any questions. Click on a link below to view the full article, alert, blog, webinar recording or interview ...
Aron Beezley of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP outlines the Justice Department's noteworthy procurement fraud recoveries for fiscal year 2020. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced1 that it obtained more than $2.2 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments in the fiscal year ending September 29, 2020 ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
In recent years, Russia has focused on regulating its IT area. In particular, this has been needed due to the increasing number of cases, when prohibited information has been distributed on various large Internet resources, such as a social network. However, according to Russian government agencies, despite the risks of possible sanctions, many foreign companies still do not respond quickly enough to government requests, or ignore the demands to remove prohibited information ...
This year it may be easier to predict developments in environmental law and policy than in 2020. The main reason for that is that there are several key developments that should have happened in 2020 but didn’t because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are our top five predictions. 1. The Environment Bill The Environment Bill is a key piece of legislation that establishes a post-Brexit environmental governance framework for England ...
Northern Ireland Mark Blair Partnerships between the public and private sectors have had a big impact in Northern Ireland, and could potentially achieve more. Shoosmiths collaborated with Insider on a series of virtual roundtables across our regions to discuss how processes could be improved, where funding could come from and what successful collaboration could achieve. To read the report from the Northern Ireland debate, please click below ...
A new Angolan Public Procurement Law (“PPL”) has been approved recently. Law 41/20 of 23 December revokes Law 9/16 of 16 June and will enter into force on 22 January 2021. The new law will apply to all public procurement procedures beginning after that date and to the performance of subsequent contracts ...
On January 25, 2021, President Biden signed the Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers (Made in America) Executive Order, which not only directs that federal government purchases and procurement go to American businesses and workers, but also calls out the Jones Act for specifically endorsing the nation’s vessels, ports, and merchant crews ...
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council’s Panel on Financial Affairs discussed tax concessions for carried interest in its meeting on 4 January 2021, following the publication of a discussion paper by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB). The FSTB’s paper sets out proposals to offer a zero percent concessionary tax rate for eligible carried interest distributed by eligible private equity funds operating in Hong Kong ...
