Our latest Doing Business in South Africa Guide outlines some of the principal matters affecting an overseas entity that wishes to establish and operate a business in the country. The Guide offers a range of practical advice and useful guidance for entities seeking to do business in the country.
Our popular Annual Compliance Conference, which attracts over 6,000 in-house senior legal and compliance professionals from across the world, will be held across five weeks from 5 September – 5 October 2023.
Welcome to the 2023 edition of Baker McKenzie’s Doing Business in Canada, a practical guide to the business and investment legal framework and developments in Canada. We hope that you find this guide a useful and practical resource.
From 9 November 2023, the unfair terms regime will change so that significant penalties may apply for breaches of the UCT regime. As a result, businesses need to look again at their standard terms for unfair terms risks.
On 27 June 2023, the Federal Trade Commission, with the concurrence of the Assistant Attorney General for the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, announced proposed changes to the premerger notification form and associated instructions and rules that implement the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The proposed changes represent an expansion and reorganization of the information collected on the HSR form.
On Friday 16 June 2023, the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition issued a strong warning to companies regarding the inclusion of certain types of contract terms that can “impede investigations” and “are contrary to public policy and unenforceable.” Specifically, the announcement warned against confidentiality clauses, nondisclosure agreements, and “notice of agency contact” provisions, commonly used in business-to-business and employment contracts.
Our latest Antitrust and Competition Handbook is now available. We have developed this guidance as a practical resource for multinationals trying to harmonize their approach to antitrust compliance in different countries in Latin America, as well as for local companies that are bringing their compliance programs up to international standards.
KPPU (the Indonesian Competition Commission) continues its enforcement against rigged bids, although bid-rigging investigations no longer dominate its caseloads. Initial indications of rigged bids have been confirmed by the issuance of KPPU Chairman Regulation No. 3 of 2023 on Guidelines on Tender Conspiracy Prohibition.
Aiming to prevent anti-competitive policies being issued by various governmental institutions, on 31 March 2023 KPPU – the Indonesian Competition Commission, issued KPPU Regulation No. 4 of 2023 on the Provision of Inputs and Suggestions for Government Policies in relation to Monopolistic and/or Unfair Business Practices. In the past, various governmental policies, particularly on imports, quotas and commodities, have caused market distortion and resulted in KPPU issuing orders against other governmental institutions. Members of the public, including business entities, are welcome to provide input to KPPU if they become aware of a potentially anti-competitive governmental policy.
The Canadian Competition Act was recently amended to, among other things, criminalize wage-fixing and no-poach agreements between unaffiliated employers. Following a one-year grace period that permitted Canadian employers to ensure they are in compliance, the criminal prohibition will come into effect on 23 June 2023.