CISA Director Jen Easterly on Log4j: “These vulnerabilities are the most severe that I’ve seen in my career.”1 On December 11, 2021, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in partnership with the FBI and NSA, announced a critical remote code execution vulnerability had been identified in the Apache Log4j software library. This vulnerability allowed a successful threat actor to take control of a network system and cause a variety of damage, including the ability to launch ransomware, steal and...

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Investment in Europe: An unprecedented shock and a fast investment rebound backed by public intervention Support targeted the short-term liquidity needs created by the crisis, but not “zombie” firms that were already financially weak Policy support was a springboard for transformation — firms reactivated their investment plans, started to digitalise and are getting ready to invest in greentech However, the COVID-19 economic shock amplified existing geographical and social inequalities The COVID-19 shock demonstrated the power of policy....

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On November 1, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, issued a “Report on Stablecoins” (Report) that provided background on stablecoins, identified regulatory gaps related to such digital assets, and offered recommendations for addressing those gaps. After outlining the risks and deficiencies in the current regulatory landscape as it relates to stablecoins, the Report recommended that Congress enact legislation requiring that stablecoins...

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The holiday period that has just ended, which marked a record increase in the number of COVID-19 infections, was characterized by the adoption of emergency measures of significant impact on daily life and business activities. Law Decree no. 221 of December 24, 2021 (“LD 221/2021”) has further extended the state of emergency until March 31, 2022. Such an extension has entailed, for private employers, among others, the extension of certain emergency measures, including the possibility of implementing the Smart Working...

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Learn the significance of the infrastructure bill, which regions will benefit the most and how it will impact the U.S. economy and commercial real estate (CRE) property markets. On November 15, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law. Carved out of the more aggressive Build Back Better vision, it marks one of the most significant investments in physical infrastructure in the U.S. in at least half a century. In this report, we provide our...

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2021 was riddled with sneak previews of a “review of competition policy tools with unprecedented scope and ambition”. These sneak previews, alongside 2021’s other competition law developments, seem to point in the direction of a more ‘social’ side to competition law in 2022, as well as looming Big Tech and Big Pharma battles, intensified (international) cooperation, more clarity on merger-related obligations for companies, and shiny new vertical and horizontal block exemption regulations. 2022 will reveal how and when the...

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On 13 December 2021, the Council of the EU adopted restrictive measures against the Wagner group, a Russia-based unincorporated private military entity, as well as eight individuals and three connected entities charged with serious human rights violations and the performance of destabilising activities in three countries. What is new? These measures were implemented by amending four sanctions regimes (namely, by adding names to the lists of sanctioned persons though the adoption of implementing regulations): the sanctions regime already in force relating...

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