Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine: EU agrees to extend the scope of sanctions on Belarus to fight circumvention

17 August 2023
Knowledge Base

The European Commission welcomed the recent adoption by the Council of further targeted restrictive measures arising from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and in response to Belarus’s involvement in the aggression. In particular, the new measures create a closer alignment of EU sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented through Belarus. Continue reading…

Nancy Mehrad

Nancy Mehrad

Author and the CEO and Founder of Registrant Law Professional Corporation

Canadian regulators issue findings on Client Focused Reforms sweeps

15 August 2023

The Canadian Securities Administrators and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organisation published in August 2023 a joint staff notice (the Notice) to summarise the findings of their review of firms’ conflicts of interest (COI) practices with respect to the Client Focused Reforms and to provide additional guidance to securities registrants. As a reminder, the Client Focused Reforms introduced significant enhancements to registrant obligations which came into force in two stages in 2021.  Continue reading…

Financial watchdog wins civil case against Ponzi-like care home investment scheme

14 August 2023
Knowledge Base

The High Court has ruled in favour of the FCA against Robin Forster, the director of a company which took £57 million from 380 investors in an illegal care home investment scheme. The FCA will ask the Court to determine the sums that the defendants should be required to pay back to investors. Between 2016 and 2020, Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd offered investments in care homes run by a third company, Qualia Care Limited.

Continue reading…

ECB surveys Europeans on new themes for euro banknotes

11 August 2023

The European Central Bank (ECB) is asking European citizens about their views on the proposed themes for the next series of euro banknotes. From 10 July until 31 August 2023 everybody in the euro area can respond to a survey on the ECB’s website. In addition, to ensure opinions from across the euro area are equally represented, the ECB has contracted an independent research company to ask a representative sample of people in the euro area the same questions as those in its own survey. ECB President Christine Lagarde invites everybody to participate in the survey. She said “There is a strong link between our single currency and our shared European identity, and our new series of banknotes should emphasise this. We want Europeans to identify with the design of euro banknotes, which is why they will play an active role in selecting the new theme.” Continue reading…

Questions and Answers on Italy’s third payment request

10 August 2023

The European Commission endorsed last week a positive preliminary assessment of 54 milestones and targets linked to Italy’s third payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU. On 30 December 2022, Italy submitted to the Commission a third payment request based on the milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision. After assessing the evidence provided by the Italian authorities, the Commission considered 39 milestones and 15 targets to be satisfactorily fulfilled. The 54 milestones and targets that have been satisfactorily fulfilled demonstrate significant progress in the implementation of Italy’s recovery and resilience plan. They cover wide-ranging transformative reforms in the areas of competition law, the justice system, public and tax administration, as well as education, the labour market and the healthcare system. The payment request also covers investments to foster the digital and green transition, and to improve support for research, innovation and education.
Continue reading…

ESAs put forward common understanding of greenwashing and warn on risks

08 August 2023
Knowledge Base

The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) has recently published their Progress Reports on Greenwashing in the financial sector. See EBA, EIOPA, and ESMA reports. In these reports, the ESAs put forward a common high-level understanding of greenwashing applicable to market participants across their respective remits – banking, insurance and pensions and financial markets. Continue reading…

Final Reflections on the LIBOR Transition

07 August 2023
Knowledge Base

In 2013, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) established the Official Sector Steering Group (OSSG) with the view of promoting the effective collaboration of the global official sector towards the end goal of successful transition to robust benchmarks, including the transition away from LIBOR. After a decade of preparation, the LIBOR transition has entered its final stage. The end of June 2023 marked the final major milestone in the LIBOR transition with the end of the remaining USD LIBOR panel. Only three of the US dollar LIBOR settings will continue in a synthetic form after June 2023 and are intended to cease at end-September 2024. In addition, reform of other interest rate benchmarks and related transition efforts have either been completed or near their planned, final conclusion. Continue reading…

Maritime transport emissions: Commission welcomes new IMO climate ambition for 2030, 2040 and 2050

04 August 2023
Knowledge Base

The Commission welcomes the agreement made on 7 July at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to revise its 2018 strategy on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. The agreement is a milestone to cut the carbon footprint of international maritime transport and ensure that the shipping sector makes a fair contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement targets, commensurate to its 3% share of global emissions. Now that the agreement is reached, it is important to start implementation as soon as possible. Continue reading…

Action against the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organisation: 34 arrests

02 August 2023
Knowledge Base

Eurojust and Europol have supported the competent authorities in Italy, Germany and Austria in a new operation against the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organisation. Among other crimes, the suspects were allegedly involved in the manipulation of elections in Italy. During a joint action day on 27 June, 34 suspects were arrested and nine were subjected to non-custodial measures. Over 1 000 officers participated in the actions on the ground. The investigation determined that the suspects had engaged in a wide variety of crimes, including the corruption of local politicians and the manipulation of elections, installing associates in crucial administrative positions, colluding in the exploitation of public procurement tender procedures, murder, violence, extortion, fraud, money laundering, illicit waste trafficking and criminal conspiracy with other criminal organisations.

Continue reading…

Investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by Microsoft regarding Teams

31 July 2023
Knowledge Base

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Microsoft is a global technology company offering productivity and business software, cloud computing and personal computing. Teams is a cloud-based communication and collaboration tool. It offers functionalities such as messaging, calling, video meetings, file sharing and brings together Microsoft’s and third-party workplace tools and other applications. The coronavirus outbreak accelerated a shift to remote working as well as businesses’ transition to the cloud and the adoption of cloud-based software for communication and collaboration. The transition to the cloud has enabled the emergence of new market players and business models offering customers the ability to use multiple types of software from different providers, without the need to maintain an in-house data centre. Cloud-based software, including the products under investigation, are typically distributed on a subscription basis. Microsoft includes Teams in its well-entrenched cloud-based productivity suites for business customers Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The Commission is concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) for communication and collaboration products.
Continue reading…