On New Year’s Day 2021, Congress passed—over President Trump’s veto—a defense appropriations law containing the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AML Act”) and the Corporate Transparency Act, as part of a sweeping new set of anti-money laundering reforms that create important new beneficial ownership disclosure obligations for a wide range of small companies, and contain both good and bad news for financial institutions ...
On Feb. 10, 2022, Congress approved the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (the act). True to its title, the act allows new claims of sexual harassment and sexual assault be filed in court, rather than be subject to pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses ...
On October 11 of this year, the Chamber of Deputies approved in the third constitutional procedure the amendments proposed by the Senate to the bill that strengthens the financial system and its infrastructure (the "Bill"). These improvements relate to five general issues, which we examine below: Repurchase agreements market (REPOs) The REPO market in Chile has not had the expected development due to uncertainties in the applicable insolvency legislation ...
On June 10, 2021, the National Congress approved the bill that establishes new tax measures to support micro, small and medium-sized companies in the context of the crisis generated by Covid-19. The bill, which is awaiting the final formalities of enactment and publication, includes the following tax measures: Temporary reduction of the penal interest rate for SMEs from 1 ...
We tend to keep an eye on trade mark developments in Europe. It makes sense because South African trade mark law is very similar to EU trade mark law and there’s far more activity in the EU. South African courts do, of course, often consider EU trade mark judgments. Here are a few recent cases: Rounded curves, thicker lines and a horizontal orientation…was the judge’s mind wandering a little? This was an interesting one ...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) has proposed changes to two rules that are designed to streamline the obligations of innovators and their patent practitioners to disclose information to the PTO in patent applications and reexamination proceedings. The proposed rules would modify the standard used to determine what information is material to patentability and therefore must be provided to the PTO to satisfy the duty of disclosure ...
SummaryEffective January 1, 2013, companies that file Exchange Act reports with the SEC are required to identify whether their products contain certain "conflict minerals" originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries (an area comprising most of Central Africa) ...
SummaryEffective January 1, 2013, companies that file Exchange Act reports with the SEC are required to identify whether their products contain certain "conflict minerals" originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries (an area comprising most of Central Africa) ...
Effective January 1, 2013, companies that file Exchange Act reports with the SEC are required to identify whether their products contain certain "conflict minerals" originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries (the Covered Countries) ...
Here we look at some of the possible avenues to explore in relation to contracts governed by English law if you are affected by events unfolding in Ukraine. Reviewing your contracts might seem like a minor inconvenience compared to what has been happening in Ukraine over the last month or so ...
In a judgement rendered on June 3, 2022,1 the Court of Appeal of Quebec reiterated that a judge who has an application for confinement in an institution before them must inform the parties when they consider that the psychiatric reports filed are insufficiently detailed. In these circumstances, the Court must allow the parties to remedy deficiencies in the evidence rather than dismissing the application. The Court of Appeal based its reasoning on the following articles: Article 268 of the C ...
The UAE federal government has recently issued a raft of important legislation. The raft addresses and updates areas of law that are key to businesses in the jurisdiction. Amongst this legislation is Federal Decree-Law 14 of 2018 concerning the central bank and the organisation of financial institutions and activities (the New Banking Law) ...
Following South Africa’s sovereign credit rating downgrade by ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and, on 9 June 2017, Moody’s, as well as developments in political circles around allegations of “state capture”, relations between private business and the country’s public entities have become a hot topic ...
Digital economy is a system of economic relations new for the Russian markets. It has emerged due to the development of modern information tech-nologies, that increased the role of information as a market-development resource. Currently, all the regulators pay significant attention to digitalization and IT technologies that might influence the market environment in Russia ...
“In view of the associated risks, it has been decided that, with immediate effect, entities regulated by the Reserve Bank shall not deal in VCs or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs ...
As we reported in our May 31, 2018 Alert, the California Legislature has been considering legislation to prevent joint powers authority (JPA) member agencies from contracting out of liability for the JPA's pension obligations ...
The lack of detail in the Budget speech on investment in renewable energy (nothing on hydrogen for example) was disappointing, and surprising to many given the timing of the Autumn Budget with COP26. However, the Comprehensive Spending Review did give a bit more detail. Whether it goes far enough or fast enough to meet ambitious targets is still up for debate ...
On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, Decree Nº318/2022 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was published in the Official Gazette, enacting the "Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership" (CPTPP), which has entered into force as of that date. The treaty seeks to promote the economic integration of the parties, generating a common framework for trade policy, government procurement, intellectual property, electronic commerce, investment, among others ...
On 5 December 2016, a new set of draft amendments to the JSE Debt Listings Requirements (the “DLRs”) was posted on the JSE Limited’s (the “JSE”) website and circulated on 13 December 2016. The comprehensive set of proposed amendments will be open for public comment until 30 January 2017 ...
Cybersecurity is a looming threat for most businesses. The impact of a major cyber event can resonate for weeks, months, and even years after the initial attack. To mitigate the risks to consumers, there have been several legislative updates to address these evolving threats, including a significant change for entities in, and adjacent to, the financial services space ...
As Lord Sumption’s leading judgment of the Supreme Court inRock Advertising Limited v MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited[2018] UKSC 24 states, it is rare that modern litigation raises truly fundamental issues in the law of contract. This case, however, raisedtwosuch issues, although as a result of the Court’s decision on the first issue, it was not necessary to decide the “difficult” second issue ...
Led by Legal Director of Immigration, Rachel Harvey and Employment Partner, Emma Morgan, this webinar provided an insight into how best to remain compliant with Employment and Immigration requirements. Guidelines in this area are frequently subject to change and it is therefore crucial that employers remain aware of the rules and their potential wider implications ...
The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (or “POPI” as it has colloquially become known) promotes the protection of personal information by requiring that public and private bodies comply with certain standards when collecting, processing, storing and sharing personal information. While POPI has yet to come into effect, there have been some developments moving it closer to implementation ...
