In its decision of 10 September 2008, the Market Court held that eight retailers of Volvo and Renault cars in southern Sweden were guilty of fixing sales prices and discounts on new cars, dividing the market for new car sales and fixing acquisition and sales prices on used cars. This behaviour was deemed to constitute such a limitation of competition as is prohibited under Section 6 of the Competition Act and Article 81 of the EC Treaty ...
Since the establishment of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in late 2004, banks and other financial-service providers established or registered within the DIFC have been restricted to operating only in the wholesale market. From July 1, 2008 it has, however, been possible to provide financial services to retail customers in or from the DIFC. Initially, the DIFC was described as a wholesale financial-services environment ...
The three major automobile manufacturers in the United States, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, have indicated that without significant financial assistance from the government a filing for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code is likely. Such a filing would have a significant impact on car dealers ...
Consumers currently spend €24bn every year in cross-border transactions, but this is only a fraction of the potential market.Many individuals are dissuaded from spending more by doubts over issues such as delivery timescales and after-sales service.EU forecasters expect online revenues within Member States to grow by 230% in the next five years, but only if the way is smoothed by the adoption of a new Consumer Rights Directive ...
But which practical actions could add up to substantial cost savings in the current climate and for the future?: try to capitalise on potential rent savings in volatile markets look to release funds from the portfolio - sweat the assets make sure that service charges are kept in check act quickly on sub-tenant default These are the key messages:
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) expressed her opinion in respect of a reference for a preliminary ruling from a German court. The main proceedings before the German court concern a German distance retailer who tried to charge the customer of a second-hand laptop for the eight months of use she had ...
I. Background The need to amend the Panamanian maritime legislation, amongst others, came as an effort to incorporate long standing practices that had been developed but were not regulated in our national laws, to promote the registration of vessels in our registry by attracting new tonnage and rewarding both loyalty to the flag and compliance with safety standards of vessels already registered in Panama ...
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that luxury brand owners can use their trade mark rights to prevent licensees selling goods to discount stores in breach of licence. Facts In 2000, Dior entered into a trade mark licence with Societe Industrielle Lingerie (SIL) for the manufacture and distribution of corseted clothing bearing the 'Christian Dior' trade mark ...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has launched the new Privacy Notices Code of Practice. It is the most recent step in the ICO's continuing battle to ensure consumers are kept informed about how and why their personal data will be processed. Months of ICO research has revealed that over half of consumers do not understand what they are signing up to when they fill in online and paper forms ...
The Bill requires online retailers to take 'all reasonable steps' to avoid selling age-restricted products to those underage. It also requires annual advice from government to retailers setting out what constitutes 'all reasonable steps' ...
Customs has changed, with immediate effect, the way in which they deal with goods suspected of infringing brand owners' intellectual property rights. The changes are bad news for brand owners who now have to initiate court proceedings each and every time they wish Customs to seize a consignment of infringing goods ...
Media organisations and journalists will now need to be more cautious when entering into contracts with third parties for interviews and information, following the decision of the High Court in ACCC v Seven Network. The court held that section 65A of the Trade Practices Act (TPA) will not afford protection to a media organisation against section 52 of the TPA when it engages in chequebook journalism ...
In our final procurement update of 2009 we report on two important administrative changes: new advertising thresholds, and new OJEU notices. New advertising thresholds published These will apply for two years from 1 January 2010. As predicted, because Sterling has been so weak against the Euro, the Sterling thresholds have actually gone up significantly (meaning slightly fewer contracts will be caught by the full Regulations) ...
● New General Merchant Marine Law No ...
On 19 October 2009, the Minister of Communications and Informatics issued Regulation, No. 42/PER/M.KOMINFO/10/2009, regarding The Procedures for Obtaining a Licence for a Foreign Based Broadcast Company Conducting Activities in Indonesia, as an implementing regulation of Government Regulation No. 49 of 2005 on Foreign Based Broadcast Companies. A foreign based broadcast company is a broadcast company established according to foreign laws and/or having offshore headquarters ...
Google France, Google Inc. -V- Louis Vuitton Malletier and others, European Court of Justice Cases C-236/08, C-237/08 And C-238/08 The European Court of Justice ruled this week that Google did not infringe trademark rights by letting advertisers purchase keywords corresponding to their competitors’ trademarks in Google’s AdWords program ...
The music, film and broadcast industries look set to get the robust protection from illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing they crave, as the Digital Economy Bill moves closer to becoming law. It passed its third reading at the House of Commons on 7 April ...
The High Court has ruled that contractual interest will form part of any agreed liability cap, but that statutory interest arising from the exercise of the court's discretion will not. In Markerstudy Insurance Co Ltd and others v Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd, the claimants alleged widespread breaches by the defendant of a number of agreements, causing the claimant to suffer loss of approximately £14m ...
The answer is that they were both the subject of two recent decisions which shed further light on the ability to register three-dimensional shapes as trade marks. On the face of it, a three dimensional shape may be registered as a trade mark provided it meets the usual criteria (distinctive, non-descriptive, capable of distinguishing goods of one business from another etc) ...
CASE REVIEW The Federal High Court in the recent case of NOBLE DRILLING (NIGERIA) LIMITED V THE NIGERIAN MARITIME ADMINISTRATION AND SAFETY AGENCY (NIMASA) & THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION, (Suit No. FHC/L/CS/78/2008) provides clarity on Sections 2, 5 and 22(5) of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, Cap. C51, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 (Cabotage Act) ...
Interest about the relevance of buyer power for competition has been growing in the last decades, as the markets of retail distribution were subject to a process of consolidation, if at different speed, in most European countries ...
The AGCOM (the Italian Media Authority) has recently published (on December 28th, 2010) two resolutions concerning the broadcasting services of audio and/or video contents (so-called “audiovisual media services”) in “linear” mode (“streaming” or “simulcast” services: Resolution n ...
Communications policy 1. Policy - Summarise the regulatory framework for the telecoms and media sector. What is the policymaking procedure? In connection with the regulatory framework for the telecoms and media sector in Chile, there are two general laws to take into account, the General Telecommunications Law (the GTL) and the National Television Council Law (the NTCL) ...
These Regulations transpose the EU Directive 2008/101/EC ("the Aviation Directive") which extends the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ("ETS") to aviation activities. The previous 2009 Regulations [S.I. No. 274 of 2009], which partially transposed the Aviation Directive, are revoked. All flights arriving at and departing from EU airports will be included in the ETS from 2012 ...
