Is it OK to use the word Russia for your Russian subsidiary?
Lidings Law Firm
by Andrey Zelenin & Tatyana Bicheva
Use of the words “Russia”, “Russian Federation” and similar words and phrases in the names of legal entities in our country has always been an object of special attention of the Government. It is considered that business partners and consumers can be misled by proclamation of organization itself as a “Russian” or “Federal” organization.
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Arbitration and Competition Law : A Troublesome Relationship
EXELIA (Brussels)
by Dominique Grisay - Professor of International and European Law, arbitrator
Ongoing cases, still to be pleaded in front of Belgian Courts, as well as rather recent French (Thalès) and Swiss judgments (ATF) have shown that the relationship between competition law and arbitration is somewhat troublesome.
It looks very much as if arbitrators too often forget (or are not called upon) to verify, in the course of their analysis of the cases they are handling, if the principles of competition law have been respected by the parties (particularly in matters of distribution, licensing…) or even bring about solutions that are, in fact, contrary to those same principles, thereby opening the door to judiciary reviews of their awards
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Restrictive Covenants – A swing back in favour of the employer?
Memery Crystal
by Merrill April
Are people expendable? A cost, or an asset?
If you subscribe to the “people are assets” viewpoint, how safe are those assets? Are yours or your clients’ businesses vulnerable to them walking out of the door to make money for a competitor? Part of the employer’s armoury in these circumstances (alongside providing stimulating work, an effective reward scheme and developing a positive culture) has always been the use of restrictive covenants.
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The European Company and the Directive 2005/56/EC on cross-border mergers: a view from France
Lefèvre Pelletier & associés
by Roland Montfort, Catherine Cathiard and Olivier Kodjo
Since the enactment of the European Council’s Regulation 2157/2001 and Directive 2001/86/EC introducing the European Company (“Societas Europaea” or “SE”) as a new available corporate form for companies registered in a Member State, more than a hundred SEs have been incorporated throughout the Union. France ranks in the third position, behind Germany and Austria, for the number of SEs already incorporated on its territory.
With the enactment of Directive 2005/56/EC specifically dedicated to regulate cross-border mergers, which will be implemented in France in the upcoming months, groups located in Europe will have two complementary options for their cross-border reorganizations (I) although the SE status is more ambitious and offers greater possibilities even for groups outside Europe (II) and France is active in the improvement of the SE status (III).
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Czech green card project for non-EU skilled workers
PETERKA & PARTNERS v.o.s., Prague
by Alena Brichackova
The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Interior are currently preparing a green card project to attract workers from third countries. Work on the project started in spring 2007 and was motivated by the shortage of university educated experts (technical experts, project engineers, designers or programmers) and other qualified workers (toolmakers, locksmiths, welders, blacksmiths) on the Czech labour market. The lack of a labour force is becoming a serious threat to the economy.
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Use of E-Mail and Internet in the Employment Context
Corrado Ferrari Mainieri Pedeferri & soc, Rome
by Andrea L. Pedeferri and Caterina Mainieri
The increasing numbers of claims, report and questions brought to the attention of Italian Courts and
Authorities pointed to the need that the processing of personal data performed by employers to verify
that the workable IT tools are used appropriately in the employment context is carried out in compliance
with legislation in force and the law principles applicable to the different matters concerned.
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Comparative Advertising Regulation in Russia
Lidings Law Firm
by Tatyana Bicheva & Marina Guseva
The Russian legislation doesn’t provide for a special regulation of such a marketing technique as comparison of goods of different manufacturers. General regulation of civil and antitrust law is applicable in relation to these comparisons. If the distributed information contains characteristic features of an advertisement, the Federal Law on Advertising of March 13, 2006 № 38-FZ is also applicable (hereinafter – the Law on Advertising).
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Personal Data Protection Sanctions Imposed by the French Data Protection Authority and Risk Prevention
Lefèvre Pelletier & Associés
by Thierry Bernard
The French Data Protection Authority (Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés (CNIL)) is the administrative authority in France responsible for implementing and controlling the application of obligations relating to personal data protection. It has powers to carry out investigations in all companies at any time or following a complaint by any person concerned and powers to impose sanctions.
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Corporate Compliance Required Under Italian Legal System
Corrado Ferrari Mainieri Pedeferri & soc, Rome
by Caterina Mainieri and Paolo Passino
The Legislative Decree no. 231, dated June 8, 2001 (Lgs. D. 231/2001), has introduced in the Italian legal system a new type of liability for legal entities, companies and associations, including bodies without legal personality (hereinafter referred to as: Company). This new regime of liability allows to directly sanction – through the payment of an administrative fine of considerable amount and through the limitation
to the capacity of the Company to carry out certain types of commercial activities - the Company, that, with or without awareness, took advantage from, has an interest in, has received a benefit from a criminal offence committed by individuals who represent the Company or act in any way in the interest of the latter. As a matter of fact, the legislator conceived the Company’s liability as a consequence of negligent conduct and, therefore, such liability seems to arise from the non existence or non observance of the required security measures and control standards within the Company’s organization. Thus, broadly speaking, by creating this new type of liability and by granting at the same time an exemption from liability in specific cases the main purpose of Lgs. D. 231/2001 is to induce companies to adopt codes of ethics and internal rules in order to prevent managers, executives, employees and external collaborators from committing economic crimes against the Public Administration, as well as other corporate criminal offences.
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VAT Treatment of the Leasing Contract of Leisure Yacht - Italian Tax Authority Resolution no. 284/E dated October 11, 2007
Corrado Ferrari Mainieri Pedeferri & soc, Rome
by Caterina Mainieri
With a recent resolution the Italian Tax Authority keeps on providing clarifications the VAT regime for
the leasing contract of leisure yacht introduced into the Italian tax system by the Law 342/2000 which
modified the relevant provisions of the Italian VAT Code.
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