Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, On 23 August 2022, the Malaysia Competition Commission (“MyCC”) launched a public consultation on the proposed renewal of a Block Exemption Order (“BEO”) in respect of liner shipping services covered under a VSA. The renewal application was made pursuant to Section 8 of the Competition Act as the earlier BEO granted expired on 6 July 2022. The press release by MyCC (“Press Release”) is accessible here ...
After almost 13 months of negotiations, on August 27, 2018 the United States and Mexico reached a preliminary commercial understanding, which they have termed an “agreement in principle,” to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”). Canada has not yet joined in the agreement, and the question of Canada’s ultimate participation will affect the substance of the deal, its posture under the U.S ...
We recently had a Namibian court decision in a passing off matter, in the case of Mega Power Centre CC t/a Talisman Plant and Tool Hire v Talisman Franchise Operations (Pty) Ltd. The decision is interesting for a number of reasons. First, passing off cases are fairly rare, so any new decision is welcome ...
What is Natasha’s Law? Natasha’s Law is the name given to the regulations that came into force on 1 October 2021 and provide new requirements for the labelling of allergens in certain foods. These regulations apply across the entirety of the UK ...
Since 1 October 2021, the requirements for prepacked for direct sale food labelling changed, offering increased protection to the estimated one in four people with food allergies in the UK. What is PPDS? Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) is food that is: presented to the consumer in packaging; packaged before the consumer selects or orders it; and packaged at the same place it is sold ...
The UK Government has published the National Security and Investment Bill – a proposed law that will introduce a screening process for certain acquisitions and investments and which is expected to come into force as early as April 2021. The National Security and Investment Bill has now had its second reading and is expected to come into force as early as April 2021. We take a look at what it will cover ...
The European Union continues to push out new rules aimed at offshore financial centers. Specifically, the Code of Conduct Group (CCG) within the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council has determined that jurisdictions that fail to satisfy the CCG’s requirement to end “preferential treatment” for non-resident companies are to be deemed ‘non-cooperative’ and effectively blacklisted ...
In an increasingly digital age, paper documents are often regarded (at best) as quaint and (at worst) as unnecessary and expensive. But when it comes to international trade, paper documents have been fundamental in terms of giving the holder of that physical document the benefit of valuable rights. This has now changed. From 20 September 2023, the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 places certain electronic trade documents on an equal footing as their paper counterparts under English law ...
The Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) recently approved (on July 18, 2018), an amendment to the Israeli Restrictive Trade Practices Law, 5748-1988 (the “Law“) regarding parallel importing (the Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment 20 – Temporary Order), 5778-2018) (the “Amendment“) ...
Background In the lead up to the entry into force of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, sustainable dismantling of vessels was put higher on the agenda for shipowners and stakeholders, and authorities in EEA tested cases on ship recycling under the waste regulations prohibiting export of waste from the EEA ...
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection issued Resolutions 677, 679 and 681 adopting the biosecurity protocols for the control and management of COVID-19 risk in the transportation, transportation infrastructure and games of luck and chance sectors. These protocols are complementary to the general biosecurity protocol adopted through Resolution 666 of 2020 and to other measures implemented by corresponding companies ...
A new bill in the California Assembly has the potential to alter substantially the existing legal framework of products liability for online retailers. Assembly Bill No. 1182 (“AB 1182”), which was introduced on February 18, 2021, would impose strict products liability on online retailers who (1) communicate offers of sale and (2) facilitate payment between a third-party seller and a purchaser, even if the online retailer never takes physical possession of the product ...
A recent case provides a new approach to analysis of the enforceability of co-tenancy clauses in shopping center leases. In JJD-HOV Elk Grove, LLC v. Jo-Ann Stores, LLC (June 28, 2022, No. C094190) __ Cal.Rptr.3d __ [2022 WL 2313437] ("JJD"), the Third District Court of Appeal declined to apply penalty analysis under Civil Code §1671 to a co-tenancy clause, as the Fifth District had done in Grand Prospect Partners, L.P. v. Ross Dress for Less, Inc. (2015) 232 Cal.App ...
1. Introduction After a long consultation period, the European Commission recently published the new Block Exemption Regulation for Vertical Agreements (Regulation (EU) 2022/720 "VBER"). The regulation will enter into force on 1 June 2022. New Guidelines on vertical restraints ("Guidelines") will accompany the new VBER. Both replace the previous set of rules from 2010 ...
The UAE authorities have taken a number of measures to reduce the costs that businesses are facing during the current crisis. We now report on some of the measures that have been introduced, current as of 12:00 noon on Thursday, 16 April 2020. Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) Administrative Resolution No. 92 of 2020 On 14 April 2020, the ADDED issued Administrative Resolution No ...
The People's Republic of China, a party to the Kyoto Protocol (2005), has been actively promulgating "greener" policies to improve China' environment and reduce carbon emissions. These green steps are creating potential new investment opportunities for foreign investors as China seeks to become more energy efficient ...
With the development of information and communication technologies, teleworking is a good solution to solve many problems encountered by employees and employers, as well as to solve more global issues: pollution, global warming, stress, traffic jam, car crashes, balance between private and working life, workspace, parking, etc ...
As of June 1, 2023, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr, “BMDV”) published a new draft bill for a regulation on consent management services (Consent Management Regulation Einwilligungsverwaltungsverordnung, “EinwV”) under the German Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (Telekommunikation-Telemedien-Datenschutz-Gesetz, “TTDSG”) ...
The European Council has just adopted a new dual-use regulation. The new dual-use regulation is a recast of the current dual-use regulation and aims, among other things, to modernize European export controls in a number of areas. The regulation is directly applicable in all EU Member States and is expected to enter into force in 2021. In this Insight, Plesner's export control specialists outline the main changes resulting from the new dual-use regulation ...
EDGAR Identifiers for Series and Classes Last July, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to Regulation S-T to require mutual funds and insurance company separate accounts issuing variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance products to obtain identifiers and electronically identify in their filings made through the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system to which of their series or classes the filing relates. See Rel. No ...
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 ...
“We continue to work closely with Member States to ensure that European businesses have access to urgently needed liquidity”, said the vice-president of the European Commission (“Commission”) Margrethe Vestager in connection with the amendment to the Temporary Framework on State aid adopted on 8 May 2020 ...
Classification, Authorization and Registration Requirements - All forex operations are subject to registration, but not all are subject to approval, such as the case of those defined as current transactions, which do not require prior authorization from the Bank of Mozambique (“BoM”) ...
On March 6, 2006, the Ministry of the Economy published the Explanatory Notes for the Tariff Classification of Goods in the Federal Official Gazette, after a delay of over four years from the date of publication of the Federal Law on Import and Export Duties (“FLIED”) on January 18, 2002. These Explanatory Rules should have been published at the same time ...
