February 2010

On 3 December 2009, following an action brought by the European Commission under article 226 of the EC Treaty (now article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Germany had failed to comply with its obligations under the European regulatory framework for telecommunications (the …

Continue reading “Commission victorious in ‘regulatory holiday’ action brought against Germany”

A search for the terms ‘surrogacy’ and ‘India’ on Google would reveal that surrogacy tourism in India is on the rise. The trend is attributed to the fact that: the cost of a surrogacy arrangement in India is much lower than other countries; the low income levels of a vast majority of the population mean …

Continue reading “Surrogacy in India: a dilemma”

This article will look at several developments within UK immigration law and procedures that have been implemented over the past two months. These include recommendations for changes to Tier 1 of the Points-Based System (PBS) by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), changes to requirements under Tier 2 of the PBS, both for sponsors and sponsored …

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The year-end audit process can bring headaches for in-house lawyers. With the financial year for most companies ending on 31 December, the first few months of the New Year bring the deepest scrutiny by external auditors of a company’s transactions and dealings, in addition to year-end procedures being run by internal audit. This increased scrutiny …

Continue reading “Will it be a Happy New Year for your company?”

A consultation document, ‘Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes’ (the consultation document), has beenpublished in respect of proposed changes to the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes (DOTAS) regime, which are largely aimed at improving compliance and widening the scope of the types of transactions that are disclosable. It is clear that HMRC consider this legislation to …

Continue reading “HMRC sharpens its tools to combat avoidance”

On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign …

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In this month’s corporate tax article, we have considered some of the proposed international tax measures introduced inthe Pre-Budget Report (PBR 2009). The headline-grabbing measures of the PBR 2009, such as the bank bonus tax or the increases in national insurance contributions, have already received considerable media attention and commentary, and therefore this article does …

Continue reading “Pre-Budget Report 2009: international tax matters”

The European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, has published a decision upholding a complaint against the European Commission by Intel Corporation (Intel). The complaint relates to the Commission’s handling of its investigation into Intel’s business activities and, in particular, its record of a meeting with a senior executive from Dell Inc (Dell), one of Intel’s biggest customers. …

Continue reading “Ombudsman’s decision: Intel”

The Companies (Cross-Border Mergers) Regulations 2007 (the Regulations) came into force in December 2007 and implements Directive 2005/56/EC of the European Parliament and Council on cross-border mergers of limited liability companies. The Regulations provide for the merging of any two public or private limited liability companies resident in the EU (providing such a merger is …

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On 11 November 2009, the European Commission imposed fines totalling over €173m on companies involved in a cartel in the market for heat stabilisers (Commission decision of 11 November 2009 in case 38.589). This brings the total value of fines imposed by the Commission in 2009 for cartel activity to over €1.6bn. The Commission found …

Continue reading “Commission turns up the heat on cartels”