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.
Please join us for a weekly series, hosted by Baker McKenzie’s North America Government Enforcement partners Jeffrey Martino and Jerome Tomas.
This week’s discussion will cover an update on the SEC Enforcement Agenda, VDA, Acquittals, Pattel MTD and MLEX.
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.
The guide provides key legal information on the regulatory environment for digital health, potential legal issues, and other hot topics at the intersection of healthcare, data and technology.
To learn more about the latest trends and developments in digital healthcare in the Philippines, access the Philippine chapter of Chambers and Partners Digital Healthcare Global Guide 2022, exclusively authored by Quisumbing Torres.
Across the world, trade secrets are becoming increasingly important. As companies align workforce transformation, manage supply chain operations and balance the needs of their digital transformation journey, new strategies are required for the identification, protection and enforcement of their most valuable, complex and market-differentiating trade secrets.
In this series of bite-sized videos, hear from Baker McKenzie’s global trade secrets team across disputes, intellectual property, data and technology and employment and compensation on best practices for a strategic, multidisciplinary approach to manage your trade secrets, disputes and risks.
Learn more about our Global Trade Secrets Group and uncover regional trends through the video below:
Best Practices for Maintaining Trade Secrets
Regulatory and enforcement agencies in the US are increasingly taking a closer look at AI and its potential for bias and other harms, but a new Baker McKenzie study has found many in the C-Suite are overconfident in assessing AI threats. Meanwhile, critical blind spots exist in HR and hiring tools oversight. Examine three key challenges and how to address them.