The December/January issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Philippines: Competition Law Updates”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partners Franco Aristotle G. Larcina and Arlene M. Maneja. The article discussed the new merger form issued by the Philippine Competition Commission on August 31, 2016. Read the article online at the IFLR website ...
On January 1, 2017, most public works projects in California will be subject to new procedural requirements applicable to claims from contractors ...
The Competition Commission found that the company EPS Distribucija, the only operator of the electricity distribution network in Serbia, abused its dominant position in the market of electricity distribution in Serbia. The abuse consists of applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with trading parties, whereby some of those trading parties have been placed at a competitive disadvantage in comparison to their competitors ...
The Serbian Parliament has recently adopted amendments to the Criminal Code. The amendments include a significant overhaul of the legal framework for white collar crimes, touching upon the rules relevant for antitrust enforcement as well. While the Serbian Criminal Code previously penalized antitrust infringements spearheaded by the responsible managers, the relevant provision was relatively vague and targeted chiefly dominance abuse ...
After a remarkable year in both merger control and antitrust, the Serbian Competition Commission (the "Commission") is already starting to look ahead. The announcements made on the Commission's website during November and December of this year suggest that the Commission's focus in the year ahead will be directed at several industries in particular. Firstly, the Commission published on its website the Report on the Sectorial Analysis of Aftermarkets ...
The Public-Private Partnership delivery model (?PPP? or ?P3?) is now well established in Canada, where more than 177 of such projects were closed between 1993 and 2015 (source: InfraAmericas). The great majority thereof (166) have been closed since 2004, and the current trend indicates the number of projects is on the rise ...
Creation of a Canadian infrastructure bank On October 20, 2016, the Advisory Council on Economic Growth published its report entitled "Unleashing Productivity Through Infrastructure". One of the report's recommendations is to create a Canadian Infrastructure Development Bank whose objective would be to deliver projects with an aggregate value of more than $200 billion over 10 years, while at the same time minimizing the use of government budgets ...
For about two years now, most renewable energy projects, particularly wind farm projects, have been financed using a so-called “hybrid” model, i.e. a combination of medium-term bank debt and long-term financing or private placements. The term “hybrid” is derived from the vocabulary of the Public-Private Partnerships industry, particularly projects involving an operational and maintenance component as part of a long-term concession ...
A federal appeals court has rejected two challenges to the environmental review of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro's) planned subway expansion in Downtown Los Angeles. The "Regional Connector" project, approved in 2012, will create a three-station, underground link through Downtown that will allow passengers to travel from points on the Metro Gold Line to the Blue and Expo lines without having to transfer trains ...
The October issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Mining Developments”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Aaron Roi B. Riturban ...
ENSafrica’s MOHS department recently represented AngloGold Ashanti Limited in a South African Labour Court case, which has culminated in a judgment that sets out important legal principles and requirements. These relate to the instructions issued by Inspectors of Mines in terms of section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (the “Act”) ...
The October 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) includes a regional update article entitled “New Implementing Rules for Philippine Data Privacy Act”, contributed by SyCipLaw partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez. The article enumerated and discussed the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012. It is located on page 11. Read the full ALB October 2016 issue on the ALB website ...
The July/August issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Promoting Foreign Investment”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Carina C. Laforteza and associate Lito Paolo T. Martin II. The article discussed the enactment of Republic Act No. 10881, which was set to make the Philippine sa more attractive destination for foreign investors in the financing industry ...
Latest news reports are informing us that the European Energy Community (EC) went back on their threats of suspending Serbia's membership, after a series of fruitful negotiations between EC's representatives and the Serbian Ministry of Energy. The agreement which allowed for this development stipulates that Serbia has accepted the plan of action regarding the restructuring of Srbijagas, at the same time complying with the requirements of the Third Energy Package ...
Recent news bring us an update from the Energy Community (EC), whose latest report has outlined that Serbia has not resolved the key issue of non-compliance with the aquis – something that presents a continuous violation of obligations under the EC Treaty – by not completing the separation of Srbijagas and Yugorosgaz activities in accordance with the "Second Energy Package" ...
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has issued its first merger clearance under the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Competition Act. The clearance was for the proposed acquisition by Sanofi of the CHC business of Boehringer Ingelham. SyCipLaw acted as Philippine antitrust counsel to Sanofi. Download the Client Alert for more information on the first merger clearance of PCC under the Philippine Competition Act ...
In the past several years, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and other government bodies have mandated recall of hundreds of products from the market.In some cases, companies have voluntarily recalled products due to their potential for risk of injury ...
The September 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Edition included a regional update article entitled “Anti-Corruption Laws in the Philippines”, contributed by SyCipLaw partner Ronald Mark C. Lleno, and Associate Rhey David S. Daway. The article discussed examples of prohibited corrupt practices under Philippine law. It is located on page 16. Access the full ALB September 2016 issue online ...
According to latest media reports, the governments of Serbia and Bulgaria have agreed on the formulation of a new memorandum for the task of building a gas pipeline between the two countries, during a recent meeting of the group for gas connections in Central and South East Europe that was held in Budapest ...
From August 30th of 2016, the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, commonly known as the “Apostille Convention”, and which changes the legalization process of foreign public documents, will enter into force in Chile. This treaty was signed on October 5th, 1961, and on December 2015 Chile completed the procedures to ratify it. In order to enforce this convention in Chile, Law No ...
The Mexican government announced the second bid of Round 2 on August 23, 2016. This will be the seventh upstream bid round in Mexico since passage of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 2.2), comprises 12 onshore blocks for exploration in the Burgos and Southeastern Basins, covering collectively 5,006 km2 , with prospective resources of approximately 643.2 million barrels of crude equivalent and an original volume of approximately 93 ...
For far too long, Africa has been plagued by the demon of conflict minerals, which have played a key role in fuelling conflict and extensive human rights violations. The terrible scenes in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remain vivid in the mind. In the history of conflict minerals, diamonds occupy the highest spot. They are valuable, portable and easily tradeable ...
The Act of 22 July 2016 Amending the Energy Law and Certain Other Acts was published on 2 August 2016. The act is intended to eliminate the black market in fuels, strengthen competition on the market, and improve Poland’s energy security. The amendments introduced by the act primarily concern the market for natural gas and liquid fuels ...
On July the 27th 2016, Law No. 20.936 that establishes New Power Transmission Systems and creates an Independent Coordinating Body for the National Power System (the “Transmission Law” or “New Law”) was published. Its stated objectives are to ensure that transmission does not become an obstacle to power generation, increase competition in the electrical market and boost the development of non-conventional renewable energies ...
