On November 15, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada declared Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)1 constitutionally invalid on the ground that it disproportionately infringed a union’s right to freedom of expression, in this case, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 (the “Union”) ...
On January 30, 2015, in the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan (2015 SCC 4) decision, the Supreme Court of Canada further clarified the scope of the rights of workers pursuant to section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”). Indeed, in its 2007 decision better known as B.C. Health ([2007] 2 S.C.R ...
The facts of the case In 1987, the Hudson’s Bay Company (“HBC”) sold one of its divisions to the North West Company (“NWC ”). In the context of that transaction, some 1,200 HBC employees were transferred to NWC (the “Transferred Employees”). On October 7, 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its judgment in the Burke v. Hudson’s Bay Co. case ...
On September 12, 2013, in Payette v. Guay inc.1, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a decision which will be of interest to anyone involved in a transaction for the purchase or sale of assets. The Court shed some light on the interpretation of clauses restricting employment and post-employment competition which are contained in an agreement providing for the sale of assets but which, incidentally, includes an employment contract ...
Facts and judicial history The Supreme Court of Canada has rendered a decision which is likely to generate a lot of commentary in the Canadian class action scene. On December 12, 2013, the Court issued a ruling in the case of AIC Limited v. Fischer1 (hereinafter ''Fischer''), now frequently referred to as the ''market timing decision'' ...
On September 5, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the motion for leave to appeal filed by the Commission des normes du travail against the decision rendered in March 2013 by the Court of Appeal of Québec in the case of Commission des normes du travail v. Asphalte Desjardins inc.1 In this decision, the Court of Appeal confirmed the right of an employer to waive the resignation notice given by its employee ...
On August 9, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the application for leave to appeal filed by Vivendi Canada Inc. against the decision rendered in February 2012 by the Québec Court of Appeal. This decision authorized Mr. Michel Dell’Aniello to bring a class action against Vivendi Canada Inc. in connection with revisions made unilaterally by Vivendi Canada Inc. to the group medical insurance benefits plan for retirees ...
Introduction Non-liability clauses are often included in many types of contracts. In principle, they are valid and used to limit (limitation of liability clause) or eliminate (exoneration clause) the liability of a party with respect to its obligations contained in a contract. The recent unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of Canada confirms that under Quebec law, parties may limit or exclude their liability in a contract by mutual agreement ...
At the end of the last year, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the “Supreme Court”) adopted the Ruling dated December 25, 2018 No ...
Captive power generation in the Indian solar sector is, literally, a hotbed of policy and regulatory contradiction. While the Electricity Act, 2003 (“Act”) incentivises captive power generation, losing lucrative industrial and commercial customers to captive power consumption is a deeply unpopular outcome for our financially beleaguered state power distribution and transmission companies which rely on high industrial tariffs paid by such customers ...
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated ruling that carries important implications for securities class action litigation, now making it easier for plaintiffs to pursue public offering claims in state courts. InCyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, 583 U.S ...
The case concerned the use of competitor’s brands in key word advertising on Google. Ikano Bank and two banks in the consumer loan market demanded that Bank Norwegian’s advertising on the Internet using the banks’ characteristics as paid keywords should be prohibited pursuant to the general clause of the Marketing Act. The principle character of the case was demonstrated by the support from Virke, The Federation of Norwegian Enterprise, in favor of the three claimants ...
In recent months, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Thomas, the Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen Inc. et al., No 15-1039, considering two critical questions in the biosimilar approval mechanisms adopted in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA” or “Biosimilars Act”) ...
On Thursday, January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay pausing implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Emergency Temporary Standard, finding that the challengers to the ETS are likely to prevail. Justices John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh issued the decision to stay the OSHA ETS. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas concurred with their own separate opinion ...
We have been involved in several noteworthy trademark and unfair competition disputes throughout 2021. In particular, we prevailed before the Supreme Court in a highly cited unfair competition and trademark dispute between Bank Norwegian AS and the three competing banks Komplett Bank, Ikano Bank, and BRA-bank in the «Google Ads» matter ...
The United States Supreme Court agreed on Monday, May 2, 2016 to hear argument on what one party called “the single most vexing, unresolved question in all of copyright”—determining when a feature of a “useful article” like clothing is eligible for copyright protection ...
We previously reported on oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding which court has original jurisdiction to hear challenges to the Clean Water Act’s “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) definition. On January 22, 2018, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense that only district courts have original jurisdiction to hear such challenges ...
In the beginning of February, the Swedish Corporate Governance Board presented a proposal for a revised Swedish code on corporate governance (the Code).Work on amending the code has been carried out in cooperation with representatives for both OMX Nordic Exchange as well as NGM ...
UAE companies can offer significant tax benefits when used as holding companies in certain scenarios. As an example, assume that an Italian limited liability company (“ItalianCo”) holds a 90% stake in a Moroccan operating subsidiary (“MoroccanCo”) and does not have a permanent establishment in Morocco ...
On Monday, September 13, 2021, the House Ways and Means Committee released several markups of proposed legislation (the “House Tax Proposals”) intended to pay for various proposed spending initiatives. Importantly, the House Tax Proposals are not entirely consistent with the “General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue Proposals” (the “Green Book”) released by the U.S ...
A bill on the legal status of temporary agency workers in connection with stationing by an employment agency etc. has been adopted, and the act will thus become reality effective as of 1 July 2013. The act has implemented the Temporary Agency Workers Directive which serves to protect temporary agency workers and improve the quality of the work of temporary agency workers by introducing a principle of equal treatment between termporary agency workers and the user companies' own employees ...
The Tenant Farming Commissioner’s Code of Practice on the Conduct of Rent Reviews contains a useful summary of the law applicable to rent reviews and provides recommended steps for the conduct of the rent review itself. If the rent can’t be agreed by simple discussion or exchange of letters then the Code of Practice sets out a timetable that the parties should follow unless both parties have agreed otherwise ...
BAG dated February 13, 2020 - 6 AZR 146/19 ("Air Berlin") In the context of collective redundancies, the term "company" is a legal term under European Union (EU) law and, with regard to the responsible employment agency, it focus particularly on the local effects of the intended dismissals. In the EU legal system, the term "company" is to be interpreted autonomously, uniformly and detached from the national understanding of the term ...
In an opinion that will certainly cause Texas hospitals, physicians, nursing home operators and other healthcare providers to consider whether they should insert standard arbitration clauses into their pre-treatment agreements, the Texas Supreme Court held last week that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempts the more stringent arbitration requirements set forth in the Texas Medical Liability Act (“TMLA”).The Fredericksburg Care Co., L.P. v. Juanita Perez et al, No. 13-0573, 2015 Tex ...
Can an employee’s insubordination amount to repudiation of his employment contract, thus providing his employer with just and sufficient cause to dismiss him? In a judgment rendered on September 20, 2013, the Québec Court of Appeal answered this question in the negative.1 The plaintiff, Pilgrim, filed a complaint pursuant to section 124 of the Act Respecting Labour Standards against his former employer alleging that he had been dismissed without just and sufficient cause ...
