Member News

Effective Dates Approaching for Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule Implementation

Key Notes: The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule requires disclosure of labor law violations by government contractors. The rule’s provisions have been controversial since the related Executive Order was issued in 2014. The Final Rule takes effect October 25, 2016, with a phased implementation schedule for contractors and subcontractors during the next year. The much-anticipated Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule is set to take effect October 25, 2016, amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require the disclosure...

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Member News

Simplified Winding-up Recognized by New Luxembourg Act

Thanks to the Act of 10 August 2016 modernizing Luxembourg company law, which entered into force on 23 August 2016 (the “New Act”), the Grand Duchy now officially recognizes the possibility for companies to be wound up by means of a simplified procedure. This is unquestionably a useful tool which will further enhance Luxembourg's business-friendly reputation. Pursuant to Article 141 of the Act of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, as amended by the New Act and Article 1865bis...

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Member News

Wednesday’s Activity: Stocks End Mixed Following Fed Minutes; CMBS Spreads Widen

Some of you have requested that we compile a list of properties located in areas that may have been impacted by Hurricane Matthew. We took the counties that were listed as Federal Disaster Areas and mapped all properties in those areas to our database. (For properties in our database, we removed any behind defeased loans or Agency notes.) We believe that the list of loans probably overestimates the number of assets potentially impacted by the storm. Because some of the counties are large...

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Member News

Luxembourg 2017 budget presented: main tax-related provisions

On 12 October 2016, the Luxembourg Finance Minister presented the budget law for 2017 to the Parliament (Chambre des Députés). The main tax-related provisions of the Bill of Law N° 7050 (the “Bill”) may be summarised as follows: Luxembourg’s transfer pricing legislation has to date been limited to a general provision enacted under article 56 of the Luxembourg Income Tax Law (“ITL”) which (following article 9.1. of the OECD Model Tax Convention) basically states that if associated enterprises deal with...

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Chapter News

President Tusk and the European Committee of the Regions join forces to restore trust and build a Europe closer to citizens

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said that he is counting on regions and cities to help the European Union listen to and address citizens' real concerns. His comment came in a meeting on 11 October with political leaders of the European Committee of the Regions. The meeting between President Tusk, and the leaders of the CoR – its President and First Vice-President and the presidents of the CoR's five political groups – came a week before...

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Chapter News

European Citizen’s Prize: celebrating people’s commitment to Europe

People and organisations from across Europe came to Parliament in Brussels on 12 October for the European Citizens’ Prize award ceremony that sought to highlight their contributions to Europe. Parliament Vice-President Sylvie Guillaume, who chairs the jury, said: “Europe is going through particularly hard times and it sometimes seems to be disintegrating before our eyes. Yet European citizens show us that Europe is alive and they put European values into practice every day." A total of 50 individuals and associations...

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Member News

Will This Big Law Firm’s ‘Innovation’ Strategy Have Legs?

It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot: innovation. In the legal industry, its use is often followed by a fair degree of skepticism. As Matthew Fawcett, general counsel of NetApp, told me last week: “I can’t see anything interesting developmentally that’s happening out there.” With sarcasm, he recalled how more than 15 years ago law firms launched Y2K practices in hopes to land business, noting that he didn’t necessarily blame them for trying. “I feel that world is almost remote...

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Chapter News, Trade & TTIP Related

Opening Remarks by U.S. and EU Chief Negotiators for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) Round 15 Press Conference

Chief Negotiator for the United States Dan Mullaney: We were very pleased to host our EU colleagues for the 15th Round of T-TIP negotiations here in New York City, which, as the location of some of the world’s busiest air and seaports, is a living testament to the importance of trade, especially across the Atlantic. We have heard some skeptical voices about T-TIP lately, but I want to emphasize that the United States remains fully engaged in these negotiations and...

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Chapter News

European Agenda on Security: First report on progress towards an effective and sustainable Security Union

Today the European Commission is presenting the first in a series of monthly reports on progress made towards an effective and sustainable Security Union. The report outlines the Commission's efforts in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime and the work undertaken to strengthen the EU's resilience against these threats. It also highlights the priority areas where more work is needed and sets out concrete operational measures for the months to come. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris...

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Chapter News

Cities and regions welcome modernisation and simplification of VAT rules

Fraud, fragmentation and the complexity of the VAT system are a major challenge especially for border regions and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore the members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) broadly support the European Commission's move to modernise VAT in the EU through an opinion prepared by Dainis Turlais (LV/ALDE) and adopted during the October plenary. The action plan on VAT was published by the European Commission in April 2016 and is the first step towards a...

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