For the second time in 2010, and only the tenth time in the past five years, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued an Opinion Procedure Release detailing the agency’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement policy regarding “certain specified, prospective—not hypothetical—conduct.”
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has issued another set of internal guidelines for banks in key cities to cease offering mortgage loans for the purchase of the third home of a household. Such guidelines should be seen as a further step by the Chinese government to implement tighter macro economic measures to curb lending in the property market to protect the banking sector from over-exposing itself to the risk in the property market.
A New York state appellate court has ruled that a contract clause calling for arbitration "in accordance with the commercial rules of the American Arbitration Association" is insufficient to provide that the arbitration will be administered by the AAA. The decision appears questionable as the AAA rules provide that "[w]hen parties agree to arbitrate under these rules … they thereby authorize the AAA to administer the arbitration." Thus, it is likely to be appealed further.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has issued an opinion that relieves plaintiffs in securities litigation from making any showing of loss or materiality at the class certification stage. In so doing, the Seventh Circuit explicitly rejected the rationale of a recent decision by the Fifth Circuit. Absent further review of this decision by the United States Supreme Court, the ruling likely will increase the pressure on defendants in class actions filed within the Seventh Circuit to settle before resolution of the class certification issue. However, the clear conflict between the positions taken by the Seventh and Fifth Circuits makes review of the issue by the Supreme Court a distinct possibility.
As the Summer vacation period draws to a close, a number of students will be knocking on the door of employers, looking for an internship: a chance to gain experience of working life before undertaking further study or committing to a full-time career.
Although companies are operating under severe
budget and resource constraints, many have
concluded that it is both worthwhile and costeffective
to engage in a self-audit of the
administration of their nonqualified deferred
compensation arrangements to ensure
compliance with section 409A of the US Internal
Revenue Code.
Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, titled as the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 (the “Act”), eliminates the exemption from regulation under the Commodity Exchange Act for most over-the-counter (OTC) energy derivatives; it imposes a new regulatory regime for OTC derivatives, which will, at a minimum, increase the transaction costs to US transportation companies, utilities, manufacturers, energy producers and other businesses actively hedging their exposure to fluctuating energy prices; and it could potentially subject some such businesses to the same increased regulatory oversight, including minimum capital requirements and minimum initial and variation margin requirements, as is mandated for those participants in the OTC derivatives market that qualify as “swap dealers” or “major swap participants.”
The recent bankruptcy filings by infrastructure companies Connector 2000 Association Inc., South Bay Expressway, L.P., California Transportation Ventures, Inc., and the Las Vegas Monorail Company have tested the structures utilized to implement public-private partnerships (P3s) in the United States in several respects. It is still too early to draw definitive conclusions about the impact of these proceedings on P3 structures going forward, but initial rulings in two of the cases are already focusing the minds of project participants on threshold structuring considerations.
On 30 July 2010, China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued a Notice on the Administration of the Provision of Security to Foreign Entities by Domestic Institutions.
Under Resolution 41/2009/QH12 dated 25 November 2009, the Vietnamese National Assembly approved investment in the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Project, comprising two plants each having two turbines, to supply electricity to the national power grid. Both Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant 1 and Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant 2 will be located in Ninh Thuan Province. To implement this resolution, on 3 May 2010, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ("PM") signed Decision 580/QD-TTg ("Decision 580") to establish the State Steering Committee for the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant Project to be headed by Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai ("State Steering Committee").
A door has been opened for foreign companies to enter Vietnam's infant nuclear power industry with the Government announcing a series of nuclear power plants to be built before 2030. Under Decision 906/QD-TTg ("Decision 906") signed on 17 June 2010 by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approving the master planning orientation for development of nuclear power in Vietnam for the period up to 2030, Vietnam will build 14 nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of around 15,000-16,000 megawatts, accounting for 10% of the country's total electricity capacity.
The Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act of 2010 (the “Act”), which became law on August 10, 2010, includes several significant changes to the US international tax rules. As described in greater detail in the full report, the Act contains provisions intended to:
On August 20, 2010, the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published their joint Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) in the Federal Register seeking public comments on the so-called “Key Definitions” of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act (the Act), which is Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Specifically, the ANPR requests comments on the proposed definitions of the following terms:
China’s Ministry of Commerce has used the country's Anti-Monopoly Law to impose conditions on the proposed acquisition by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG of world-leading eye care company Alcon Inc. The decision has attracted particular scrutiny because of the unusual nature of the conditions imposed by the regulator, and the fact that it continues the Ministry's record of only restricting transactions between foreign multinationals.
China’s Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) has
approved the proposed acquisition by Swiss
pharmaceutical company Novartis AG (“Novartis”) of
world-leading eye care company Alcon Inc. (“Alcon”),
subject to conditions.
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