As we continue to be bombarded daily with the relentless 24/7 news cycle regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the reality is that healthcare employees are currently the most likely to be exposed to the disease in the United States. Accordingly, healthcare employers must start, or continue, to think about the various situations that may arise in the workplace and the multitude of laws that may apply ...
Coronavirus Digest no. 4 Patents and other intellectual property rights 1. Patents Moderna reveals that it may not hold the patent rights for the vaccine against Covid-19, because it was not the first to file the patents. This came after the US National Institute of Health claimed co-ownership of the rights to this vaccine. Read more here ...
The EU Commission has implemented a Temporary Framework for State aid measures and provided the Member States with a toolbox of instruments to support their companies in the crisis. Germany has implemented some of these instruments. The following article takes a look at instruments that have been notified by other Member States and are also of interest to Germany ...
Introduction The recent spread of the coronavirus around the world is justifying significant concern among senior living operators and raising questions about how to prepare for and respond to the possibility that the disease will affect residents, staff, and visitors. This concern is exacerbated by the fact that seniors tend to be more vulnerable to such communicable diseases and live in close quarters with others at the community, sharing meals and participating in group activities ...
EUIPO On 16 March 2020, the Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has issued Decision No EX-20-3 extending all time limits expiring between 9 March 2020 and 30 April 2020, that affect all parties before the Office, to 1 May 2020. In principle, the new deadlines will not be communicated to the parties on a case-by-case basis ...
The coronavirus pandemic is already affecting contractors carrying out public projects and other contracts under the public procurement regime. With the dynamic development of the situation, there is arisk that negative consequences will go even further. The current situation affects not only the performance of contracts but also ongoing and future public procurement procedures ...
INFARMED has published a set of exceptional measures – which will remain in force during the period of risk to public health – to be adopted by sponsors, clinical trial sites, and research teams, to guarantee the safety, protection and rights of clinical trial subjects.It has also defined INFARMED’s evaluation of trials intended to treat or prevent the new Coronavirus disease (SARS-CoV-2) as a priority ...
Analysis of the changes to the special legal rules onthe credit and financing moratorium. Through Decree-Law 26/2020 of 16 June (“DL 26/2020”), the Government has approved, a set of amendments to the special rules onthe moratorium on financing approved by Decree-Law 10-J/2020 of26March ...
On 5 March, the CMVM published Regulation 2/2020 on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, to provide the regulations under Law 83/2017 of 18 August. The CMVM did this as the sector regulator responsible for supervising financial entities including investment companies, investment fund management companies, venturecapital companies, and securitisation companies ...
The state of alert was declared by the Minister of Internal Administration and the Minister of Health on 13 March. With this declaration and the set of measures adopted, we need to look at the possible impact of these circumstances on ongoing tender procedures and on the performance of existing public contracts. 1 ...
Following the renewal of the state of emergency, Decree 3-A/2021 of14January of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, determines the closure of various types of establishments. Inthiscontext, the employment support measures were amended by Decree-Law 6-C/2021 of 15 January and Decree-Law 6-E/2021 of15January, which we summarised below. 1 ...
Order 3547-A/2020 of the Office of the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action was published on 22 March 2020 and it went into force at midnight the next day. This Order creates the rules that give effect to the declaration of a state of emergency in Portugal made by Decree of the President of the Republic 14-A/2020 of 18 March ...
In the context of the Covid-19 legislative process, entities representing the social economy or what is often known as the third sector have already benefited from some consideration by the legislature. Certain legal arrangements have been drawn up to identify the needs and protect against the weaknesses of this charitable / socially supportive economic cluster ...
The rapid spread of the new Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a very significant increase in demand for medical devices (MDs) and personal protective equipment (PPE), and there was insufficient supply to meet existing needs during the state of emergency and the period that will immediately follow it ...
Answers to important questions 1. WHAT INFORMATION OBLIGATIONS DOES THE EMPLOYER HAVE TO INFORM ITS WORKFORCE? As with other highly infectious diseases, employers have a duty to inform their staff about the coronavirus as part of their general duty of care and consideration (Sec. 241, 618 German Civil Code [BGB]). The extent of this duty to inform depends, among other things, on whether a member of staff is suspected of having caught the virus, whether or not this has been confirmed ...
A. SHORT-TIME WORK 1. WHAT IS THE LEGAL POSITION? According to the "Act on the temporary crisis-related improvement of the regulations for short-time work compensation" ("Gesetz zur vorüberristeten krisenbedingten Verbesserung der Regelungen für das Kurzarbeitgeld") (see preliminary version of BT publication 19/17893), a company can order short-time work due to the worldwide cases of illness caused by the coronavirus and thus reduce working hours ...
Decree-Law 10-A/2020 of 13 March created exceptional public procurement rules on spending authorisations and administrative authorisations. These rules are intended to ensure the immediate availability of the goods and services needed to respond to the current state of emergency. However, under article 7(6)(c) of Law 1-A/2020 of 19 March, it seems that all administrative time limits in favour of private parties are suspended ...
INFARMED and the DGS have published a set of guidelines for manufacturers and wholesale distributors of medicinal products for human use. The aim of these guidelines is to ensure supply to the domestic market and, at the same time, to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect the employees of these operators ...
How can undertakings access state aid and under what conditions can the state grant this aid? Concept of state aid State aid is any economic or financial support granted by the state, or from state resources, that gives an undertaking a selective advantage which may affect trade between Member States. State aid is, in principle, prohibited. Therefore, it must be notified to the European Commission in order for it to decide whether it is compatible with the internal market ...
There has been an increase in the number of businesses seeking to exploit coronavirus for commercial gain, often in breach of relevant advertising and consumer regulations. What can you do to make sure your advertising practices are above board? Background A surge in the demand for products related to coronavirus, such as facemasks and hand sanitiser gel, has led to a range of issues, particularly in relation to responsible advertising and fair pricing practices ...
Following the differences that came to light with AstraZeneca at the end of last week, the European Commission approved Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/111 of 29 January 2021, which came into force on Saturday, 30 January. The Regulation prohibits the unauthorised exportation of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 outside the European Union ...
Brief notes on Commission Regulation 2021/111 of 29 January 2021 Following the differences that came to light with AstraZeneca at the end of last week, the European Commission approved Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/111 of 29 January 2021, which came into force on Saturday, 30 January. The Regulation prohibits the unauthorised exportation of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 outside the European Union ...
