Several listed companies recently bought the music rights of world famous stars such as Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift. The payoff of investing in music mainly comes from streams revenues. But the benefits do not seem to be that bad: for instance, since Sony bought Michael Jackson's music portfolio in 2016, its stock price has quadrupled (1) ...
The most recent edition of Federal Register, which appeared earlier this month, announces the removal of the United Arab Emirates from the list maintained by the US Department of Treasury of countries that observe the Arab League Boycott of Israel. This fact will substantially ease compliance burdens for American businesses operating in the UAE, although it does not eliminate the compliance burdens entirely. The United States never supported the Arab League Boycott of Israel ...
Lifting of US Sanctions The US Government announced the removal of Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism effective as of Monday 14 December 2020. After 27 years of US sanctions, such step restores sovereign immunity for the Sudanese government in US Courts. It is also a critical step in the process of reintegrating Sudan into the global economy and offering a lifeline of international financial aid to Sudan ...
The National Government issued Decree 360 of 2021 that modifies the customs regime contained in Decree 265 of 2019, in order to provide legal security to foreign trade users by specifying the substantial and formal obligations that must be met in the customs procedures and regimes. In addition, it temporarily modified the obligation regarding the minimum amount of liquid assets required of customs agencies ...
In our previous article, we reported on the Supplemental Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between Mainland China and the HKSAR (Supplemental Arrangement) made on 27 November 2020, which made certain revisions to the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between Mainland China and the HKSAR, as follows: Recognition of arbitral awards -The Supplemental Arrangement clarified that the procedures set out in the Arrangement shall be in
The advent of blank cheque company IPOs. Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have taken the corporate world by storm. These “blank cheque” shell companies, which raise funds in their initial public offerings (IPO) to invest in potential but as yet unidentified target businesses, have fuelled a listing frenzy in the US. SPAC IPOs have garnered US$87.9 billion in fundraising in the first three months of 2021, already exceeding last year’s total ...
Colombia updated its free trade zones regime to increase the competitivity of this investment opportunity. Among others, it now allows three new activities for free trade zones, introduces the creation of a concertation committee to discuss key topics between the Government and the private sector, and it simplified procedures to declare a free trade zone. Decree 278 of 2021 was introduced as a tool towards innovation in the free trade zone regime ...
Comment from Paula Swain, Partner National Head of Commercial Recoveries and Head of the Solent office for Shoosmiths, Paula is also a Director with the Solent LEP and was part of the Freeport taskforce which was successful in its bid ...
The Chancellor announced the first eight Freeport locations: Solent, East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe & Harwich, Humber, Liverpool City Region, Plymouth and South Devon, Teesside and Thames ...
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 ...
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 ...
February marks the start of the second month after Brexit materializing. The Member States have finally understood that the United Kingdom (UK) is no longer in the Europen Union (EU) so that the fairy-tale of the Single Market that has lasted for decades is now over. Although many businesses resolved various legal or regulatory issues before 1st January, new challenges inevitably keep arising now, when Brexit is a reality ...
As a developing country, Indonesia is still considered to have limited Government fiscal capacity and limited state-owned enterprise (Badan Usaha Milik Negara – “BUMN”) and financial sector funding capacity indicating that domestic capacity is not sufficient to meet what is needed to finance development and support economic growth and opportunities ...
On 4 January 2021, the President of Republic of Indonesia issued Regulation No. 2 of 2021 on the Ratification of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement to Legalize Foreign Public Documents (“PR 2/2021”) (the convention is hereinafter referred to as the “Apostille Convention”). The Apostille Convention was concluded on 5 October 1961 and is intended to simplify a series of formalities for documents signed overseas for the contracting states ...
On January 25, 2021, the German federal Cabinet introduced the draft for the new Cyber Security Act (“IT Security Act 2.0”) into the legislative process ( Draft of a Second Act to Increase the Security of Information Technology Systems, printed matter 19/26106 [draft of a second law to increase the security of information technology systems, document 19/26106] ). The new German Cyber Security Act is intended to replace the old German Cyber Security Act of July 2015 ...
When it comes to the general transfer of data to third countries, even, for example, intra-group data transfers, recourse to US providers such as Microsoft (Office 365), Amazon (AWS), Google or Salesforce has been ill-fated since the ECJ ruling of July 16, 2020 (C-311/18 “Schrems II”) ...
Some facts and figures that set out the landscape of merger control, antitrust enforcement and competition litigation in Portugal in 2020. Interim Measures The PCA ordered the Portuguese Professional Football League to suspend its decision preventing teams in the First and Second Football Leagues from signing players that have unilaterally terminated their contracts due to the COVID-19 pandemic ...
To boost the economy post-Brexit the government is committed to establishing up to 10 freeports across the UK. In our latest freeport bitesize article, we look at some of the planning implications of which bidders and bid participants should be aware. Back in August 2019 the UK Government announced plans to create ten new freeports that would be free of “unnecessary checks and paperwork, and include customs and tax benefits” ...
Key issues The EU Insolvency Regulation has ceased to apply to the UK The English court acquires new grounds for jurisdiction under the EU EXIT Regulations Insolvency proceedings opened in an EU Member State may be recognised by the UK courts based on the UNCITRAL Model Law Cross-border insolvencies between the EU and the UK will likely become more time consuming, complex and expensive Recognition of UK scheme of arrangements is subject to the Hague Choice of Court Convention or t
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
December 23, 2020 the Luxembourg legislator has published the law of 19 December 2020 implementing financial restrictive measures (“law of 19 December 2020”). This law has repealed the law of 27 October 2010 enhancing the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing legal framework ...
