On 25 November 2020, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR Carrie Lam presented her fourth Policy Address, which includes various proposals to create more jobs in both the public and private sectors through the Job Creation Scheme established under the anti-epidemic fund measures, enhance support to employees through the Love Upgrading Special Scheme for Retraining, and create employment opportunities for young people in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) ...
The Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) provides for a transition period ending on 31 December 2020. Thereafter, EU trade marks (EUTM) will cease to extend protection to the UK. To safeguard these rights, the UK government has implemented measures to ensure that EUTM owners will continue to enjoy trade mark rights in the UK. Trade mark rights registered as of 31 December 2020 will be automatically cloned into national UK registrations ...
The State Taxation Administration (STA) released several announcements in the beginning of February which established preferential tax policies for facilitating the prevention and control of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and supporting enterprises to resume their business operations. Certain preferential tax treatments are specifically offered to enterprises and individuals that are directly involved in the prevention and control of the outbreak of COVID-19 ...
In Surrey County Council v Suez Recycling and Recovery Surrey Ltd [2021] EWHC 2015, the parties had entered into a number of agreements and England’s Technology and Construction Court had to determine what they had ultimately agreed should be the appropriate dispute resolution forum. The Court granted the application for a stay of the proceedings in favour of arbitration, under s.9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (equivalent to s ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many employees working from home, and brought about a need for a more collaborate meeting culture in place of physical meeting and travelling. Online meetings using video conferencing systems empower businesses to stay connected with their clients, and interact and collaborate with their employees working remotely via the Internet ...
On 19 March 2021, the Hong Kong Government gazetted the Securities and Futures and Companies Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2021 (the Bill). The Bill provides for an uncertificated securities market (USM) regime which will allow investors to hold securities in their own names without paper documents ...
In the recent case of A1 & ANOR V R2 & ORS [2021] HKCFI 650, the Applicants are pursuing proceedings in the Cayman Islands and other jurisdictions in relation to an alleged fraud committed against a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership, involving alleged misappropriation of over US$100 million ...
Hong Kong’s Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (FSTB) issued a public consultation paper on 3 November 2020 (Consultation) proposing the introduction of a licensing regime for virtual asset services providers (VASPs), as well as other changes to Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering regime ...
The Financial Services Branch of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (the “FSB”) issued a letter on 1 April 2021 to all licensed money lenders setting out the Government’s proposal to revise the statutory interest rate cap and extortionate rate for money lending stipulated in the Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163) (“MLO”) ...
In the recent US case of In Re Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers (Revlon), the New York federal court held that lenders in a syndicated loan were not obliged to return an erroneous payment made by the syndicated facility agent due to the ‘discharge for value’ principle, which operated as a successful defence to unjust enrichment (click here for the full decision) ...
With a view to combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong Government has introduced measures to implement social distancing, including, among other things, the Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation (Cap. 599G) (Regulation), which has been effective since 29 March 2020. The Regulation, when first issued, prohibited group gatherings of more than four persons in public places during the “specified period” ...
On 27 August 2021, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”), a group of private-market participants convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2014 to lead the LIBOR transition in the United States, issued FAQs and Best Practice Recommendations on, among other things, the use of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) and its term rates (“Term SOFR”), following the ARRC’s formal recommendatio
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued its Consultation Conclusions on the OTC derivatives regime for Hong Kong – Proposed refinements to the scope of regulated activities and competence requirements under the OTC derivatives licensing regime (Conclusions) on 10 June 2020 ...
Did you know? The long-awaited draft of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) was released for public consultation in October 2020. If enacted, it will be the first comprehensive law setting out the overall legal framework, as well as the obligations of different stakeholders throughout the entire lifecycle of personal data in China. Why does this matter to you? The data protection regime in China has developed rapidly in recent years and is stricter than one might think ...
Factual background The taxpayer, Dr Leung, was a medical doctor employed by the Hospital Authority (“HA”). Part of the conditions of his employment was that he was required to be ‘on call’ on certain days including Sundays and public holidays. When ‘on call’, he was obligated, among other things, to be within the physical proximity of the hospital, to be ready to render medical services if the need arose, and to abstain from drinking alcohol ...
When an employment relationship comes to an end, it is not uncommon for the parties to enter into a termination agreement setting out the departing employee’s rights and obligations. A question naturally arises as to whether, and to what extent, these benefits are chargeable to salaries tax ...
In the recent case of Re Shum Tung Lam formerly known as Shum Wan Man [2020] HKCFI 1720, the Court of First Instance was asked to clarify the requirements under section 30A(6) of the Bankruptcy Ordinance (Cap. 6) (BO) which governs objections made by creditors or trustees to the automatic discharge of a bankrupt from bankruptcy ...
On 28 April 2020, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Competition Commission entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the intention to enhance their cooperation and exchange of information, so as to allow each regulator to perform their respective functions more effectively. This is the second MoU entered into by the Competition Commission with a Hong Kong regulator, and is the first MoU the Competition Commission entered into with a financial regulator ...
In our Client Alert dated 26 March 2021, we reported that the Government had released a draft Technical Circular on the implementation of the spirit of Security of Payment Legislation (SOPL) in public works contracts. The draft Circular was provided to stakeholders to comment and the Circular aimed at implementing certain measures of SOPL on public works contracts, term contracts and related subcontracts tendered after July/August 2021 ...
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular on 17 April 2020 (Circular) to managers and market makers of SFC authorised exchange traded funds (ETFs) reminding them of their responsibility to manage ETFs in the best interests of investors. The circular was prompted by the suspension of market making activities by the sole market maker of an ETF due to the quarantining of some of its trading staff ...
On 29 October 2020, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its Consultation Paper on the Management and Disclosure of Climate-related Risks by Fund Managers (Consultation) which proposes new mandatory requirements for Hong Kong fund managers of collective investment schemes around climate-related risks ...
On 4 December 2020, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its Consultation on proposals to (1) implement an investor identification regime at trading level for the securities market in Hong Kong and (2) introduce an over-the-counter securities transactions reporting regime for shares listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (Consultation). The Consultation paper is available here ...
