May 31, 2023 By: Stephanie Shea The California Unruh Act (specifically, California Civil Code § 51) prohibits “all business establishments of every kind whatsoever” from discriminating based on citizenship or immigration status, among other things. That protection applies to all persons within the jurisdiction of California. At the federal level, (simply put,) the federal civil rights statute (specifically, 42 U.S.C. § 1981), prohibits alienage discrimination ...
In November 2021, the New York City Council passed a bill requiring that artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools used by employers to make or assist in hiring decisions or internal promotions undergo bias audits to screen for discriminatory effects. Under the City Charter, the bill became law a month later after it was returned unsigned to the Council by then-mayor Bill DeBlasio ...
May 26, 2023 By: Stephanie Shea The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018 amended TILA to require the CFPB to issue rulemaking addressing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans. Specifically, the Act required the CFPB to apply TILA’s ability-to-repay (ATR) requirements to PACE loans and to apply TILA’s civil liability provisions to a PACE lender’s violation of those ATR requirements ...
Contents Please click on the links below to jump to the relevant section: Overview Guarantees Collateral Security Financial assistance Syndicated Lending/Agency/Trustee/Transfers Withholding, stamp and other taxes; notarial and other costs Judicial enforcement Bankruptcy proceedings Jurisdiction and waiver of Immunity Licensing LIBOR replacement Other matters Overview What are the main trends/significant developments in the lending markets in your jurisdiction? As in o
The Charities Act 2022 is being introduced in phases. From June 2023 trustees will have greater flexibility over how they procure advice to ensure the terms on which they dispose of a charity’s interests in land are the best that can reasonably be obtained. Voluntary Service Overseas is one of the latest major charities to scale down its office space as it responds to the long-term changes resulting from Covid-19 ...
For a decade or more, Meta has been sending Facebook data from European users – in the form of photos, chat, posts, and more – over to its parent company in the US for storage. Since the Snowden revelations, Europe has been aware that this data has been open to US intelligence services on a large scale, without – it says – the protections and accountability afforded to people in Europe ...
BT announced earlier this week that it plans to cut between 40,000 and 55,000 jobs by 2030. It expects around 10,000 of these roles to be replaced by AI, particularly in customer services. BT’s recent announcement is a reminder that increased use of AI is now a key board agenda item, with businesses exploring whether they can increase efficiency and improve operations by investing in generative AI ...
The latest reforms to Law No. 19,496 Consumer Protection Act, introduced mainly by the "Pro-Consumer" Law and the E-Commerce Regulation, will force companies to be more vigilant in the 2023 version of CyberDay. During the event, which will be held from May 29th to 31st, the National Consumer Service ("SERNAC") will be supervising that companies comply with their e-commerce obligations ...
Open Finance is becoming a pivotal element in the evolution of the European Union’s regulatory framework for payment services, most notably embodied in the anticipated Third Payment Services Directive (“PSD3”) ...
Overview The Law on Trusts promulgated on 2 January 2019 provides the legal framework for the creation, registration and inspection of trusts in Cambodia. To facilitate the implementation of the Trust Law, the Trust Regulator on 3 November 2022 issued Prakas 051 on the Formalities and Procedure for Inspection of Trusts (“Prakas 051”). Prakas 051 applies to the inspection of activities and operations related to the trust sector in Cambodia ...
Two months ago, we published an article speculating how the UK government may look to regulate generative AI such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, as part of its broader approach to AI regulation in the UK. On 29 March 2023, the government unveiled its White Paper entitled ‘A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation’ ...
Progression of developments in technology have always led to impacts on the general workforce. With increased international focus on the speed of AI development and use, what could the impacts be of AI be on today’s workforce? The BBC have recently covered that “a March 2023 report from Goldman Sachs estimated that AI capable of content generation could do a quarter of all the work currently done by humans ...
The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (“DICA”) has issued an undated notice where it has listed the documents that all DICA registered companies are required to submit to DICA to obtain its approval to repatriate foreign currencies out of Myanmar (the “Notice”). We understand from the Notice that it applies only to DICA registered companies ...
The wait is finally over as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (Bill) passes through Parliament with aims of introducing numerous protections for consumers, including powers to clamp down on fake reviews. The pandemic was the catalyst in the rise of online shopping meaning that consumers rely heavily on online reviews, more so now than they used to ...
SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan (SyCipLaw) has just published the SyCipLaw TMT and Data Bulletin covering significant Philippine legal and regulatory developments in the technology, media, telecommunications and data space, from late 2022 to the first quarter of 2023. It also notes links to podcasts and materials relating to TMT and dataPLUSa commentary on whether AI can replace a local counsel ...
The Supreme Court on 10 May 2023 considered whether damage caused by an oil spill in 2011 could constitute a “continuing nuisance” – and so extend the limitation period for a claim ...
The government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 19/2023/ND-CP dated 28 April 2023 (“Decree 19”) to provide guidance for the Law on Anti-Money Laundering. Decree 19, effective as of its issuance date, includes the following: Details on Know Your Client (“KYC”) Decree 19 sets out the specific situations in which financial institutions must carry out KYC procedures ...
The South African banking and finance landscape is continually evolving, driven by changing regulations as well as emerging trends. Recent amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (“FICA”) have brought about new obligations that trustees operating within the sector must be aware of ...
Gone are the days when satellite communication was limited to those brick phones with long antennas. Satellite communications services are gaining traction globally as they offer alternative ways of connecting end users to the Internet and other related communications services. However, as electronic communications services via satellites become more popular and accessible, service providers are met with regulatory challenges ...
Have you ever browsed one of your favourite online retail platforms and noticed an entirely new clothing collection launched by the brand for your metaverse avatar? In February of this year, we stumbled upon Zara’s Valentine’s Tale range. The collection comprised 22 digital assets which included necklaces, earrings, rings and bags that could be purchased for your avatar through Zepeto, which is Asia’s largest metaverse platform ...
In its recent judgement in Re Avanti Communications Ltd [2023] EWHC 940 (Ch) ('Avanti') the High Court decided that in some circumstances a charge can take effect as a fixed charge despite the chargor having some flexibility to dispose of assets without the consent of the charge holder. Background A charge expressed to be a fixed charge may be at risk of being re-characterised by a court as a floating charge if the charge holder fails to exercise sufficient control over the assets ...
