The Middle East luxury brands industry has rapidly expanded in recent years, driven by rising global consumption and major strides in online retail sales and marketing. These developments have also brought new challenges for the industry as companies face more stringent regulations as well as complex corporate and employment issues as they expand into new markets. As luxury goods companies gather large amounts of customer information, data protection has also become a major concern. Join Baker McKenzie for an update on the employment and data protection laws for luxury brands in the Middle East on 8 February 2023 from 2:00 – 3:00pm GST.
In this vlog series, our MENA team of cross-practice specialists provide a quick roundup of the latest legal and commercial developments in the region as well as insights to emerging challenges and opportunities, to guide you as you shape your organization’s business resilience and strategy in the medium and long term. In addition, our senior female lawyers from our BakerWomen Middle East team join the conversations and share their insights on business and inclusion issues and trends in the region, as together we look to build trust and well-being in a post-pandemic world.
The implementation of Pillar 2, a principal rule of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s 15% global minimum tax proposal, has been debated for several years. Recently, Japan took a firm step towards affirming its adoption of Pillar 2 when the country outlined its 2023 Tax Reform Package, which included the implementation of the 15% global minimum tax. The Package also introduced an Income Inclusion Rule that in broad terms, aligns with the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Model Rules, expected to become effective in 2024. This affirmative step by Japan puts some pressure on other states that have committed to implementing the GloBE rules, particularly in the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and South Africa.
A recent Prime Ministerial Decree No. 4664 of 2022 was published on 25 December 2022, incorporating new provisions to the executive regulations of the Capital Markets Law No. 95 of 1992. The Decree provides for the establishment of a voluntary carbon market platform within the Egyptian Stock Exchange for the trading of carbon emissions reduction certificates (CERs). The CERs are tradeable financial instruments for greenhouse gases and are to be issued in favor of entities establishing projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions after obtaining the approval of the relevant authorities which are not currently specified. Each CER unit shall represent the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon dioxide reduced.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Switzerland Implements Further EU Sanctions Measures on 9 January 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
This webinar on 17 January 2023 will explore key questions and examples of the state of play of crypto (or digital) assets across a number of jurisdictions and the tax impact and rules on employee compensation as well as considerations from a wealth management perspective.
The issuance of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses on 9 December 2022 provides businesses operating in the UAE with a framework for understanding how the corporate tax regime will impact their business model. The Corporate Tax law is broadly in line with the public consultation document that was issued in April 2022, however, one of the notable changes is the release of the conditions to be satisfied by UAE Free Zone entities to be eligible for the 0% rate (rather than being taxed at the headline 9% rate).
On 9 December 2022, Canada announced further amendments to the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations in response to those “who are complicit in gross and systematic human rights violations in Iran”. These amendments list an additional 22 individuals under Schedule 1 of the Regulations and entered into force on 7 December 2022.
The Egyptian Parliament has approved amendments to the Law number 3 of 2005 on the Protection of Competition and the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices (ECL), introducing for the first time a mandatory pre-merger notification regime in Egypt. Until now, the ECL had only a post-merger notification system which did not give the Egyptian Competition Authority any powers to assess, approve or block a transaction. The amendments are expected to be published in the Official Gazette and enter into force during December 2022.
On 2 December 2022, Canada announced further amendments to the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations in response to the Iranian regime’s “gross and systematic human rights violations and actions that continue to threaten international peace and security”. These amendments list an additional four individuals and five entities under Schedule 1 of the Regulations and took effect on 29 November 2022.