In recent years parallel trade in the pharmaceutical sector has been a hot topic. On September 16 2008 the European Court of Justice published its eagerly anticipated judgment on the refusal to supply by dominant pharmaceutical companies in the Syfait II Case. Recently, the Belgian competition authorities have also addressed this subject when dismissing an appeal by Bofar, an exporter of pharmaceutical products ...
Robertson v. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., 2009 BCSC 602 Employee not constructively dismissed when employer’s unilateral reduction in his remuneration was small and he waited too long to complain about changes to his duties. Robertson was employed by West Fraser Timber (“WFT”) and its predecessor Weldwood for twenty-nine years ...
The establishment and operation of many Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) involves cooperation amongst industry participants, including those who may be competitors in other aspects of their businesses. It is very important that participants in CRCs remember that the prohibitions against anti-competitive conduct in the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA) will apply to the CRC collaboration ...
On 1st January 1997, the Partnership Act 1996 (the Act) came into force in the BVI. It features two types of partnerships, the Limited Partnership and the General Partnership. The Limited Partnership is the most common one. In the Act, the Limited Partnership is defined as partnership formed by two or more persons with one or more General Partners and one or more Limited Partners ...
Since the introduction of Law 32 of 1927, the Law on Corporations of the Republic of Panama has remained virtually unchanged, serving both Panamanians and well as foreigners to put in order, protect and plan the transfer of their patrimony in an orderly fashion ...
In 2004, the Bahamas adopted the figure of the private foundation in what became the first attempt by a Common Law jurisdiction to integrate the vehicle, which has been traditionally associated with civil law jurisdictions. A foundation is the endowment of a patrimony for a specific purpose (object), which is set forth in the document that creates and internally organizes the foundation, called the foundation charter ...
The Labour Market Opinion (LMO) program of Service Canada has recently changed: extension applications for LMOs are no longer permitted. Instead, each request to continue to employ a foreign worker will be treated as a new LMO request and will need to be supported by evidence of updated recruitment activity ...
Austrian law distinguishes between composition proceedings in accordance with the Composition Code (Ausgleichsordnung-AO) and bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code (Konkursordnung-KO). Bankruptcy proceedings have to be opened if the debtor is unable to pay. In particular, inability to pay must be assumed if the debtor suspends payments. Inability to pay does not require that creditors are actively seeking payment ...
The long-awaited and controversial Equality Bill (the Bill) has been published and laid before Parliament. Public consultations are scheduled on several of the measures outlined in this very significant piece of legislation, though it is not expected to come into force until the end of next year. With a General Election likely in June 2010, it remains to be seen how quickly the Bill will progress and how much of it will survive ...
The House of Lords has today given its long awaited judgement in the Stringer case (previously known as Ainsworth). The House of Lords allowed the employees' appeal, overturning the Court of Appeal's earlier decision and substituting the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ...
On May 6, 2009, the Belgian legislature amended the Belgian Competition Act. Most of the amendments are of a procedural nature and are of minor importance. However, the clarification of the prescription rules and the option of dismissing cases on policy grounds catch the eye. The amendments entered into force on May 29, 2009.The Belgian Competition Act was the subject-matter of a thorough reform in 2006 ...
IntroductionDirective 2006/68/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 6 September 2006 has amended the Second Company Law Directive in relation to maintenance of capital.On 8 October 2008, the Royal Decree (hereafter the “Royal Decree 10/2008”) implementing the Directive was adopted and substantially modified the Belgian Companies Code (hereafter “BCC”) in respect of contributions in kind, purchase of own shares and financial assistance ...
Indemnity clauses and negligence - a review of the impact of the judgment in the Buncefield disaster case on the effect of indemnity clauses and whether a party can recover under an indemnity clause where it caused the damage by its own negligence ...
The intention of this brief note is to present an analysis of internal crises within law firms and the way of avoiding them. We define a crisis as an unexpected and grave difficulty or danger (“a time of intense difficulty or danger”). As a matter of fact the greek origin of crisis (“krisis”) meant “decision” (from “krinein” – decide) ...
In two recent cases (Coditel and Stadtreinigung Hamburg), the ECJ dealt with the so-called “in-house exemption” in procurement matters ...
What are the limits on national public procurement law to prevent collusion between tenderers in award procedures? This was the question the ECJ dealt with in its recent Assitur judgment (C-538/07).The facts of the Assitur case were as follows. Three tenderers passed the qualitative selection phase and were admitted to the final procedure ...
A number of laws and regulations have been promulgated in the past few years to introduce a series of changes to the existing PRC Labour Law, among which the key legislations are the PRC Labour Contract Law effective on 1 January 2008 and its detailed implementing regulations effective on 18 September 2008 ("Laws") ...
Dear Sirs, let us kindly remind you that on July 01, 2009 amendments to the Federal Law “On Limited Liability Companies” of February 08, 1998 ¹ 14-FZ (hereinafter – the “New Law”) came into force. Pursuant to it, the Articles of Association of limited liabilities companies (hereinafter – the “companies” or the “LLC”) established prior to July 01, 2009 should be brought to compliance with the New Law by January 01, 2010 ...
As more companies feel the effects of the recession, suppliers must ensure they are properly protected should customers struggle to pay their bills, fall into financial decline or, worse, insolvency. A common form of security is a Retention of Title (RoT) clause in the supplier's contract. This aims to afford the seller the ability to recover goods that have not been paid for, and/or to give precedence over other creditors should the worst happen ...
The Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha/KPPU) has issued Regulation No. 1 of 2009 regarding Pre-Notification on Mergers, Consolidations, and Acquisitions. This regulation has been effective since 13 May 2009 ...
The Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha/KPPU) has issued Regulation No. 2 of 2009 regarding Guidelines for Intellectual Property Rights and the Application of the Anti Monopoly Law. In general the regulation refers to intellectual property rights and Article 50 (b) of Law No. 5 of 1999 on the Prohibition of Monopolistic and Unfair Business Practices (Anti-Monopoly Law) ...
Currently, employers can lawfully require employees to retire at 65 (the so-called default retirement age) as long as they follow the correct procedure. This has come under increasing criticism, and is currently the subject of a legal challenge by the charity Heyday (part of Age Concern). Whatever the outcome of the Heyday challenge, the Government had previously said it would review the default retirement age in 2011 to see if it was still needed ...
On August 7, 2009, the Supreme Court of Canada released its much anticipated decision of Nolan v. Kerry (Canada) Inc., a decision that concerns the ability of a plan sponsor to charge pension plan administrative expenses to the pension fund and the ability of a sponsor to use the actuarial surplus in the defined benefit portion of a pension plan to fund a contribution holiday in respect of the defined contribution portion of the plan ...
ON JUNE 16, 2009, THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE INTRODUCED BILL 60 ENTITLED AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND OTHER LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS (THE “BILL”) IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.This Bill is part of the ongoing measures by the Minister of Justice and the Office de la protection du consommateur (Consumer Protection Bureau) to provide for the comprehensive regulation of commercial practices involving goods and services contracts used by consumers ...
The “statutory demand procedure” is designed to provide a fast-track method of proceeding to the winding up of a company. It creates a presumption of insolvency. The Statutory Demand is still a basis to issue a winding petition on the ground of “inability to pay debts” as was the case under the 1984 Companies Act ...
