Over the past two years, various media outlets have been reporting on increased investor interest for the Serbian real estate market, with a particular focus on Belgrade. Goran Vesić, the city manager, recently substantiated these reports by claiming that Belgrade's Public Land Development Agency made a total of 772 business deals with investors over the course of last year alone ...
In a third and final round of settlements with underwriters, the SEC announced on February 2, 2016 enforcement actions against 14 firms for alleged misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offerings ...
NewLegislation Enables the Public Offering of Foreign Fund Units in Israel for theFirst Time On February 10, 2016, the IsraeliParliamentary Finance Committee approved regulations ("Regulations")which will enable the public offering of foreign mutual fund units inIsrael. The Regulations will take effectwithin six months from the date of publication. Prior to the enactment of theRegulations, the Israeli Joint Investment Trust Law permitted the offering offoreign funds in Israel ...
The jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”) will increase February 25, 2016, and will apply to any transaction closing on or after that date. The revised thresholds will remain in effect until the next annual adjustment, expected in the first quarter of 2017.To read the full alert, click here ...
Lavery closely monitors new developments in consumer law and is committed to keeping the business community informed of the latest developments in this area of the law by regularly publishing newsletters dealing with new case law or legislative changes which may impact, influence, or even transform practices in the retail sector ...
Less than two days after an enforcement moratorium expired, U.S. and EU officials in transatlantic data transfer talks have reached a new “Privacy Shield” framework to replace the Safe Harbor regime struck down in the Schrems case last year. The new framework, also known as Safe Harbor 2.0, is expected to increase obligations on U.S. companies that handle the personal data of Europeans, while bringing stronger privacy enforcement by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) ...
On January 1, 2016 Law No. 20,848 which sets forth a new legal framework for foreign direct investment in Chile (the “New Law”) was enacted. The New Law also regulates the effects of contracts entered into during the term of Decree Law No. 600 of 1974 (“DL 600”), in order to guarantee the full validity of the rights and duties acquired by foreign investors under said legal regime ...
Times are tough, very tough, for many mid-cap and small-cap exploration and production (“E&P”) companies. Crude oil prices have fallen from more than $100/barrel in July 2014 to a twelve-year low of less than $30/barrel in January 2016. Natural gas prices are at a three-year low. The growing consensus is that depressed prices will experience a slow recovery that may continue into the 2020s ...
To give effect to the constitutional right to privacy, on 20 August 2013, the National Assembly passed the Protection of Personal Information Bill (B9D of 2009), which is largely based on the European Data Protection Directive (to be replaced in due course by the stricter General Data Protection Regulation). The Bill was signed into law by the President on 19 November 2013 and was gazetted as the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”) on 26 November 2013 ...
Yesterday the Supreme Court issued its decision in the closely-watched case of Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. __ (2016) ...
On 11 December 2015, shortly before the holiday season began, the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services published an amendment to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations (“the regulations”) in the Government Gazette. The amendment states that Internet domain names registered in the .co.za, .net.za, .web.za and .org.za are open to alternative dispute resolution under the regulations ...
A recent Trade Mark Registry decision confirms that well-known global brands are well protected in Mauritius. The case involved an application by a Mauritian company called Exparel Limited to register the trade mark JSP-JUST SAFETY PROFESSIONAL in classes 25 (the clothing class) and 35 (the business services class) in Mauritius. The application was opposed by a UK company called JSP Limited. JSP Limited is based in Oxford and was established in 1964 ...
In South Africa, the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) is often used as a forum for trade mark-style disputes. As a recent decision shows, however, success isn’t guaranteed. Regular readers of our IP ENSight newsletters will know that companies are quite fond of using the ASA for what are essentially trade mark or passing off-type disputes. One reason for this is that ASA proceedings are far cheaper and quicker than court proceedings ...
Termination of electricity supply due to non-payment of an electricity account A landlord may not, without a court order, terminate the supply of electricity to premises leased to a tenant who is in arrears with monthly electricity payments. This is according to the recent High Court judgment in the matter of Anva Properties CC vs End Street Enterprises CC (22109/2014, 14 April 2015) ...
The confusing definition of “instalment sale agreements” in the Act In terms of the National Credit Act (“the Act”), an instalment agreement is defined as a sale of movable property. From the definition, it would seem that instalment sale agreements over immovable property are excluded from the Act; however, this is not the case ...
loration and production (“E&P”) companies are confronting the harshest industry environment in decades. E&P companies experienced a drastic deterioration in prices for their oil and natural gas production during the second half of 2014, which remained at depressed levels throughout 2015. The velocity and steepness of the decline has resulted in deteriorating operating cash flows, results of operations and financial condition for many E&P companies ...
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On December 11, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC,” or the “Commission”) issued re-proposed rules (the “Proposed Rules”), as authorized under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted the final rules to Regulation Crowdfunding on October 30, 2015, which implemented Title III of the JOBS Act to allow companies to raise capital through crowdfunding. The final rules are codified as Regulation Crowdfunding in furtherance of Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act of 1933 ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”), in In re Simon Shiao Tam, held the seventy-year old disparagement clause of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act unconstitutional on December 22, 2015. Under Section 2(a), a trademark shall be refused registration if it consists of “matter which may disparage…persons, living or dead… or bring them into contempt, or disrepute ...
The main provisions of the Restructuring Law of 15 May 2015 enter into force on 1 January 2016. It will serve one of the foundations of commercial law in Poland, enabling effective restructuring of insolvent enterprises. The Restructuring Law sets forth the rules for the Polish courts to conduct four separate types of restructuring procedures. It also introduces a range of major changes to the Bankruptcy & Recovery Law of 2003, which from 1 January 2016 is renamed the Bankruptcy Law ...
Recent reports indicate that the number of mergers that were challenged by stockholders during the fourth quarter of 2015 dropped significantly, with estimates ranging from 34% to 21%.1 This is a seismic shift from prior years, when almost 95% of public company transactions resulted in litigation. The drop in lawsuits is attributable to a series of rulings by the Delaware Court of Chancery during the second half of last year ...
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States Department of the Treasury issued a “Geographic Targeting Order” on January 13, 2016, aimed at curbing money laundering in the real estate sector. The targeting order is an expression of the Treasury’s power under 31 U.S.C. § 5326 of the Bank Secrecy Act and will affect all-cash purchases of real estate valued at $3 million or more in Manhattan and $1 million or more in Miami-Dade County ...
In February 2015, the report on the public enquiry of the fire commissioner concerning the fire that occurred on January 23, 2014, at the Résidence du Havre at L’Isle-Verte, which resulted in the death of thirty-two residents, was tabled1 ...
This week, in Teladoc, Inc. v. Texas Medical Board, 1-15-CV-343 RP, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, in one of the first federal decisions interpreting North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission, 135 S. Ct. 1101 (2015), denied the Texas Medical Board immunity from an antitrust claim in a narrow reading of the state-action immunity doctrine. To read the full alert, click here ...
