The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that motor vehicle distribution agreements may benefit from the exemption in Regulation 1400/2002 (Block Exemption) even if the supplier can terminate the agreement without notice in certain circumstances. The Block Exemption applies to such agreements provided the supplier gives reasons for the termination which are subject to review by an independent expert or arbitrator ...
Film Services OfficeThe Film Guarantee Fund (FGF) : First established in April 2003, the FGF’s main objective is to assist local film production companies to obtain loans from financial lending institutions for the purpose of producing films and to help develop a film finance infrastructure in Hong Kong ...
On 14 July 2006, the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese Governments signed a ground-breaking agreement entitled “An Arrangement on Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region pursuant to Choice of Court Agreements between Parties Concerned” (the “Arrangement”), under which they agreed to recognise and enforce judgments made in each others courts ...
In an effort to “rejuvenate the excitement of going to the movies”, The Drive-In became Hong Kong’s first drive-in cinema when its first of 4 screens opened to the public on December 6 2006. The second is tentatively to open by Christmas and the last two, by Chinese New Year 2007 . Situated in the West Kowloon Cultural District, the venture is owned by Sowell Resources Limited who also holds the lease to the site of The Drive-in ...
Another victim of the economic boom in Hong Kong is the Cine-Art Cinema which was officially closed in November 2006. The cinema was the only venue on Hong Kong Island that programmed independent, arthouse films. The only other arthouse cinema is Broadway Cinemateque in Kowloon. Due to rising property prices and a declining audience for several years, Cine-Art had no choice but to close ...
On 17 November 2006, the Beijing First Intermediate Court rejected the copyright infringement claim made by seven music companies, namely Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, Universal, Gold Label, Go East and Cinepoly, against NASDAQ-listed Baidu.com. The music companies which owned the copyright, alleged that the MP3 search service of Baidu.com allowed users to freely download 137 songs and sought an injunction as well as damages in the amount of RMB1,690,000 ...
The war between new DVD technologies, Blu-ray and HD DVD are reminiscent of the battle between the VHS and Betamax videocassette formats. Who will be the winner in this war is yet to be seen as these formats are now becoming available in retail outlets. Supported by Sony, Blu-ray is the next generation optical disc which was developed to store large amounts of data and to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high definition (HD) video ...
If you are a business owner-leader whose years of hard labour earned him substantial wealth, you certainly wish to maximize the value of the assets that will be transferred to your heirs. You also want such transfer to proceed harmoniously and at the lowest tax cost possible. To achieve these goals, you must start to plan now ...
Pursuant to the Act on Budget Rules for Public Administration, the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic, by this Ruling, enlarged the scope of persons entitled to subsidies ensuring higher penetration of broadband internet access ...
Following the amendments to the Inland Revenue Ordinance earlier this year, the Inland Revenue Department ("IRD") issued its Departmental Interpretation and Practice Notes ("DIPN") No. 43 on 6 September 2006. Whilst the Inland Revenue Ordinance ("IRO") laid down the legal foundation in respect of the Hong Kong profits tax exemption for unauthorised funds, DIPN 43 provides some practical guidance on the application of the exemption ...
The main legal acts regulating the registration of seagoing ships in Lithuania are the Law on Merchant Shipping, the Rules for Registration of Seagoing Ships in Lithuania approved on 4 July 2005 by order No. 3-301 of the Minister of Transport and Communications, and the Decision of the Government of Lithuania “On the Register of Seagoing Ships of the Republic of Lithuania”. The following ships can be registered at the Register of Seagoing Ships of the Republic of Lithuania (the Register): 1 ...
The effects of the singular interpretation of the EC Treaty that the Court of Justice has been reinforcing for many years whilst assessing the compatibility of income tax legislation of the Member States with that Treaty, are now beginning to be felt, and to a considerable degree, here in Portugal ...
It is now eighteen months since Freedom of Information legislation came into force and one of the most interesting facets of the Scottish and UK Information Commissioners' decision-making has been the application of the public interest test. In terms of the Freedom of Information legislation there are certain exemptions which, when they apply, can potentially exclude requested information from disclosure ...
Recently, in 2005, the Portuguese tax system streamlined its rules for the taxation of dividends, by harmonising rates which previously varied in accordance to the nature of the recipient of the dividends. This, along with the introduction of some provisions aimed at dealing with schemes that used exempt entities to evade tax, helped to turn the taxation of dividends more coherent and simple ...
Purchasing a yacht should be a pleasurable experience given that the craft in question is most likely to be used for the owner’s leisure pursuits. Yachts, however, whether they are second-hand, new, large or small, have one thing in common. They are expensive. However, many purchasers whether they are paying £10,000 or £1,000,000 are sometimes less cautious than perhaps they should be when buying what is in effect a “toy” ...
Captains of private and commercial yachts (and owners) have civil and criminal law duties most of which are concerned with the safe operation of the vessel. As the captain is regarded in law as being the owner’s agent, he is the person unfortunately on the spot. It is the captain who becomes personally liable in the first instance for any fine imposed on the vessel. Owners or charterers have no legal obligation to compensate him even though the offence may have occurred due to their fault ...
One of the essential components of organizing sport events is the ticketing system. Usually implemented by the Organizing Committees (OC), it is not unusual that these agreements contravene EC Law. In the Italy 1990 World Cup, the OC entered into a worldwide exclusive agreement of ground entrance tickets with a single tour travel agency for the purpose of putting together package tours for the event ...
The legal concept that one can arrest a vessel and prevent it moving is unusual to say the least. An arrest in the UK (and other jurisdictions) is practically undertaken by serving upon the vessel a “Warrant of Arrest”, a very similar concept to criminal proceedings albeit this form of arrest is a civil law admiralty procedure and for very different reasons ...
Captains of private and commercial yachts (and owners) have civil and criminal law duties most of which are concerned with the safe operation of the vessel. As the captain is regarded in law as being the owner’s agent, he is the person unfortunately on the spot. It is the captain who becomes personally liable in the first instance for any fine imposed on the vessel. Owners or charterers have no legal obligation to compensate him even though the offence may have occurred due to their fault ...
On 2 November 2005, the Legislative Council enacted the Revenue (Abolition of Estate Duty) Ordinance ("RAEDO"). It came into operation on 11 February 2006. RAEDO, among other things: (i) abolishes estate duty as proposed in the 2005 - 2006 Budget; and (ii) empowers the Secretary for Home Affairs ("SHA") to release money from bank accounts of deceased persons and allow inspection of bank safe deposit boxes ...
On 13 December 2005, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") found Marks and Spencer plc ("M&S") could claim group tax relief from UK tax authorities in relation to the losses incurred by its former European subsidiaries that had ceased trading in Belgium, France and Germany in 2001. M&S argued that just as UK resident companies in a group may set off their profits and losses among themselves, so the same should be possible for the losses of foreign subsidiaries ...
On December 1, 2005, the second paragraph of section III of Article 31 of the Income Tax Law became effective and requires taxpayers seeking to deduct the purchase of gasoline to pay with the taxpayer’s check payable to the seller, with a credit, debit or services card, or with a prepaid card, authorized by the Tax Administration Service. On January 25, 2006 a new amendment to Rule 3.4 ...
At the end of last year, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to amend the Federal Radio and Television Law and this has now been turned over to the Senate for consideration ...
At the 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress held on 27 October 2005 amendments were adopted to the Individual Income Tax Law of the People's Republic of China. The amendments were promulgated by President Hu Jintao on 27 October 2005 and enter into effect on 1 January 2006. Tax free allowance A first amendment raises the tax free allowance applicable to wages and salaries from RMB 800 to RMB 1,600 ...
