Civil Law

Brazil’s Sustainable Taxonomy Action Plan enters public consultation

Brazil’s draft Sustainable Taxonomy Action Plan (the Action Plan), prepared by the Ministry of Finance, is currently under public consultation and receiving contributions and comments for its improvement. The deadline for taking part in the public consultation is October 20, 2023.

The development of a sustainable taxonomy seeks to address Brazil’s main environmental and social challenges, taking into account its commitments, objectives and priority plans. Consisting of a classification system that defines, on a scientific basis, activities, assets and/or categories … Read the rest

Civil Law

U.S.- Immigration agency updates guidelines for officials’ treatment of Red Notices (part 2 of 3)

On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued new agency-wide guidelines regarding how its employees will address cases in which Red Notices and Diffusions.

The complete guidelines are found here, and the most relevant provisions (in my estimation) are listed in our last blog post.

In part one of this series, we referenced the fact that some of the new provisions would likely be more impactful in a practical sense than others. The provisions that are … Read the rest

Civil Law

ESAs report on the landscape of ICT third-party providers in the EU

On 27 September 2023, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) co-published a report on the landscape of information and communication technology (ICT) of third-party providers (TTP) in the EU.

The report sets out the results of a high-level analysis, carried out by the ESAs together with Member State competent authorities with the objective of getting a preliminary overview of the provision of ICT services to EU financial entities by ICT TTPs. The analysis was performed … Read the rest

Civil Law

Can Florida Courts Confirm Appraisal Awards and Appoint Umpires?

The property insurance policy calls for a court to appoint umpires. Parties typically file a petition to appoint an umpire and then a request to confirm the appraisal award after the appraisal panel renders a decision. A reader of this blog asked me to comment on the following ruling from a recent Florida appellate case:1 

State Farm Florida Insurance Company (‘State Farm’) appeals the final judgments entered in four related cases that confirmed appraisal awards set by a

… Read the rest
Civil Law

Illinois Federal Court Dismisses One False Advertising Suit Based on Malic Acid, While Sustaining Another

A pair of malic acid decisions recently issued by Judge Coleman in the Northern District Court of Illinois reaffirmed that the statements “natural flavors with other natural flavors” and “no artificial flavors” receive different treatment under state false advertising laws, at least in that district.

In Boss v. Kraft Heinz Co., the plaintiffs alleged that Kraft Heinz’s MiO water-flavoring products contained synthetic malic acid, rendering false and misleading the claim “natural flavors with other natural flavors” on the products’ … Read the rest

Civil Law

Cognizant’s High Court approved scheme of arrangement was held to be a colorable device by Chennai ITAT

Cognizant’s High Court approved scheme of arrangement was held to be a colorable device by Chennai ITAT

The ITAT recently dismissed an appeal and slammed Cognizant India Private Limited (“Cognizant India”) for what it perceived as  using a colorable device to evade taxes during its INR 190 billion share buyback exercise.

Cognizant (Mauritius) Limited (“Cognizant Mauritius”) and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporations USA (“Cognizant USA”) held around 76% and 22% stake in Cognizant India respectively. The remaining 2% minor shareholding was also held by USA based entities.

In the year 2016, Cognizant … Read the rest

Civil Law

The in duplum rule does not apply to late payment interest on arrear pension fund contributions owed by participating employers

Since 2020, most retirement funds have been faced with a situation where participating employers have failed to comply with section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA), by either underpaying employer or member contributions or not paying at all. The non-payment of contributions attracts late payment interest in terms of section 13(7) of the PFA.

It is against this background that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) repealed Regulation 33, which governed payment of pension fund contributions and … Read the rest

Civil Law

No Breach Too Small: OFSI Reports First Breach of UK’s Russian Sanctions Regulations

On 31 August 2023 the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issued a “Disclosure” against Wise Payments Limited, a UK-registered company, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, for breaching Regulation 12 of The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 by making funds available to a company owned or controlled by a designated person.

Continue reading the full GT Alert.

LexBlog… Read the rest