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Baker McKenzie’s Government Procurement Update resource center gives you the latest guidance, trends and enforcement actions related to government procurement (both US government contracting and international financing institutions), including suspension and debarment, bid protests, and False Claims Act defense. Calling upon our deep bench of more than 4,000 lawyers and legal professionals worldwide, we will occasionally feature guest practitioners to write about related topics in the criminal, civil, and administrative context. Readers can expect to find practical guidance and tips for compliance with public procurement policies as well as best practices for managing government inquiries and litigation.

The most comprehensive guide of its kind, the Global Attorney-Client Privilege Guide is an interactive resource covering the law and best practices on privilege in 34 key jurisdictions.
The up-to-date understanding of the law of privilege found in the Guide helps companies to maximize the available protections and ensure that, where possible, privilege is maintained.
When litigation is threatened, companies whose employees know how to recognize and protect privileged information are better prepared to respond to the risks.

There are many examples of non-resident shareholders of South African companies failing to endorse their shares. This constitutes a breach of South Africa’s Exchange Control Regulations and may be subject to penalties and/or imprisonment. This endorsement should be carried out as soon as possible after the acquisition of shares, and if this was not done, it should be rectified straight away.

In two recent cases, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) issued infringement decisions against two dominant companies. In the first case, the ECA established that a company operating in the yeast industry has abused its dominance in a number of ways, including restricting passive sales between distributors and also engaging in retail price maintenance. In another case, the ECA was against a food delivery online e-platform for abusing its dominance by engaging in Most Favored Nation clauses with the restaurants in violation of Article 8 of the Egyptian Competition Law No. 3 for 2005.

On 30 August 2022, the Indonesian competition authority (“KPPU”) issued Circular No. 9/KPPU/SE/VIII/2022, clarifying that it will accept apostilled foreign official documents.
Since Indonesia acceded to the Apostille Convention in 2021, The KPPU’s position on this has been unclear, particularly with regard to how powers of attorney issued abroad should be processed. With this Circular, it the authority has now confirmed that documents issued in a member state of the Apostille Convention will only need to be notarized and apostilled to be accepted by KPPU.

KPPU, Indonesia’s competition authority, is taking an increasingly aggressive stance, as seen in its latest decision on partnerships between a large corporation and small and micro enterprises. In that case, a maximum fine of IDR 10 billion (approx. USD 670,000) was imposed on a large corporation that was viewed by KPPU as controlling the SMEs it partners with. This recent development could indicate the start of a more rigorous approach to enforcement by KPPU against SME partnerships.

This article, written by Clara Hansen, Candidate Attorney, and Angelo Tzarevski in Antitrust & Competition Practice, Johannesburg provides details on the Draft Block Exemption Regulations (“Regulations”) for Small, Micro and SMMEsMedium-Sized Businesses (SMMEs), which were published on 31 August 2022 after consultation with the Competition Commission. The Regulations are intended to enable collaboration between SMMEs and promote the growth and participation of SMMEs in the South African economy.

On 1 August 2022, Swiss National Day, Switzerland’s revised Narcotics Act entered into force. The revision aims at facilitating medical treatments and improving research and development of cannabis. Prior to the revised law, patients and physicians had to apply for special authorization from the Federal Office of Public Health if they wanted to access cannabis for medical purposes. The amendment will allow numerous patients safe and timely access to cannabis medicines as part of their treatment regime. This signifies a further step in modernizing Switzerland’s legislation on cannabis.