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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The rules of global taxation are on the brink of change for the first time in nearly 100 years. The leaders of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) G20 met in Rome on October 30th 2021 to finalise the agreement for a global minimum tax.  Governments must now consider a range of alternative methods to stimulate business entity research and development (BERD), and successful innovation in the new global tax landscape. In this article, I have considered...

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In this week’s Roar, we bring you counter-intuitive news on cargo volumes at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port, sorting out the fees at LA-LB, 2022 expectations from BREXIT, peaking demand on global supply chains, and upward pressures on air rates. But first, a constant for the industry has been dealing with labor shortages. Here is a short video from WSJ.com that you might find insightful. Click on the chart below to view it. The increasing COVID-19 cases in the Belin district of Ningbo...

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It is hard to think of an industry that has been affected more since the outbreak of COVID-19 than the aviation industry. An industry with a business model that relies on moving large amounts of people across the globe, generally within close contact of each other, has been decimated in the past two years. While the ghostly scenes of scores of grounded planes parked on the tarmac and abandoned international airport terminals are not as prevalent as they were in...

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This week's special bulletin provides an overview of the significant changes in Canadian immigration, with a focus on mobility to Quebec for temporary foreign workers. Occupational Wages by Interval for Quebec LMIA Applications - Effective January 1, 2022 The Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration du Québec has updated its Guide des " Salaires par professions présentés par intervalles selon les quartiles au Québec " (édition 2021). This guide will be the reference tool as of January 1,...

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The United Kingdom's National Security and Investment Act (the NSI Act) is now fully in force. First proposed in 2016, the NSI Act creates a stand-alone regime that authorizes the UK government to consider and address the national security implications of a wide variety of acquisitions, investments, and other transactions. The commencement of the NSI Act marks a new era for the UK government's approach to scrutinizing corporate transactions on national security grounds. NSI Act Framework Under the NSI Act, trigger...

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The start of a new year is a great time to take stock of what’s happened over the past 12 months and look forward to the future. This reflection needs to include the positive and negative… so in this week’s Roar, we’re covering the best and worst of everything from the media’s surprising fascination with port congestion, the most notable supply chain management trends, businesses’ stop-gap measures to ease freight pain, predictions for further supply chain disruptions in 2022,...

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The introduction of the UK National Security and Investment Act 2021 (the “Act”) on 4 January 2022 has brought major changes to the UK's investment screening regime. The Act introduces a mandatory notification regime for transactions in 17 “high risk” areas of the economy, which include advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, data infrastructure, energy, synthetic biology, and quantum technologies. The Act, which is far-reaching, covers non-UK targets with activities in the UK. Failure to notify and achieve clearance prior to...

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