In this News Update, we provide a high-level overview of the most notable competition law developments in the Netherlands during the first half of 2022. Abuse of dominance In the past six months, there have been considerable developments in the area of abuse of economic dominance. Apple dating apps: In the ongoing dispute between Apple and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets ("ACM"), ACM imposed several orders subject to penalty payments. Apple had initially refused to adjust its allegedly unfair...

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On 25 July 2022, Commission Delegated Regulation on the sustainability-related disclosures imposed on financial market participants and financial advisers was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. On 25 July 2022, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022 (“CR 2022/1288”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. CR 2022/1288 supplements Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 (“SFDR”) with regard to regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) providing...

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Economic realities in the food industry today include shortages and price hikes. A growing interest in sustainability and other ESG measures is helping offset these challenges, and ensuring crops and farmers alike are protected. To reduce the impact of supply chain issues, and to support the client in their quest to nurture farming communities, Tradewind Finance provided USD 2.25 million in funding for an agricultural commodities trader based in the Netherlands that exports to Europe and India. It sources ethically-harvested agricultural...

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Companies involved in intended or completed M&A transactions falling below EU and national merger notification thresholds should beware that their deals may still catch the European Commission’s eye. The General Court has upheld the Commission’s decision to accept a national referral request regarding Illumina’s acquisition of Grail: a transaction not triggering any of the notification thresholds within the EEA. Until it is clear whether the European Court of Justice shares the General Court’s view, the Commission will continue its quest...

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On June 16, 2022, the government of Canada tabled a bill that would make significant changes to privacy laws impacting employers in the federal jurisdiction. The new legislation, the Digital Charter Implementation Act (Bill C-27) would replace Part 1 of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and would create three pieces of legislation in its place, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (PIDPTA), and the Artificial Intelligence and...

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With the help of our members, this thought-leadership series explores the acceleration of “digitalization” due to COVID-19 on both sides of the Atlantic, and across various industries. Today, we present Thora Johnson, Partner at Orrick in Washington D.C.; along with Douglas McMahon, Partner, at McCann FitzGerald in Dublin, Ireland. They will address: “EU & US Privacy and Security Considerations for Covid-19 Data Processing Activities From Pandemic to Living with Covid”. Test and trace activities have been at the heart of...

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We can hope that August will be quiet. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan do not meet until September. With a snap Italian election on September 25, an Italian political storm may wait for vacationers to return. The volatility of the S&P 500, the VIX, is at three-month lows, and the equivalent measure in the Treasury market (MOVE) has come off sharply from the peak in early July that was above the 2020...

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Real estate is a popular investment choice for non-U.S. investors, but foreign investors need to take careful considerations when looking to invest. These considerations include income, business structure and the property value, to name a few. With no one-size-fits-all, investors need proper planning and advice to avoid possible tax and penalty complications. What is the U.S. Estate Tax Exemption? While U.S. citizens and persons who are deemed to be domiciled can enjoy an estate tax exemption in 2022 of $12,060,000, that figure does not...

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On July 27, only hours after the Senate passed, by a vote of 64-33, a pared-down version of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act (H.R. 4346), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced they had reached an agreement on a budget reconciliation package. The reconciliation legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) (H.R. 5376), is a much pared-down version of the House-passed Build Back Better (BBB) bill. After...

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On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund updated its annual World Economic Outlook, providing a gloomy economic outlook for the world economy. According to the IMF’s outlook, global GDP growth will be limited to 3.2% for this year and 2.9% for the coming year. The figure is already down significantly from the 6.1% projected last year. According to the IMF’s analysts, a “tentative recovery in 2021 has been followed by increasingly gloomy developments in 2022 as risks began to materialize,” referencing...

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