In a Notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on April 29, 2017, the EU has announced its imposition of an additional 4.3% ad valorem import duty on certain products of U.S. origin, as part of its ongoing dispute with the United States over the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (commonly referred to as “the Byrd Amendment”). The scope of the goods covered by this announcement is defined in terms of EU tariff numbers: 0710 40 00...

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For Alix's fifth annual global anti-corruption survey, they polled more than 300 general counsel and compliance officers on the impact that corruption risk has on their businesses. The report explores the challenges facing corporate legal departments today and why technology and data analysis continue to play an important role in managing risk. At a glance • 93% of survey respondents say they expect the challenges associated with moving data across borders to increase or stay the same. • 37% say their companies...

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This month’s installment focuses on a landmark lawsuit brought against the property tax authorities of none other than New York. Several weeks ago, a group known as Tax Equity Now NY (TENNY) – which describes its mission as the pursuit of legal and political reform of New York City’s property tax system – sued the State of New York, the City of New York, the NYC Department of Finance, and ORPTS (the State-level administrator of the property tax system) what...

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The EACC, in partnership with the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), wants to keep members up to date with the latest developments in property taxes both in the USA and Europe. IPTI has put together a selection of brief reports from articles contained in IPTI Xtracts which can be found on its website (www.ipti.org). As far as Europe is concerned, this month’s report includes an article on Norway and a focus on the United Kingdom where a general election has...

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The seemingly endless supply of bad news for retailers was halted (at least temporarily) over the last 48 hours. Target released positive results on Wednesday, and Walmart did the same yesterday. Not that either report will do much to change perception in the near term for Macy's, Sears, Dillards, and others, but it is good to know that someone can still make a buck selling through brick-and-mortar channels. (However, it wasn't all candy and roses as recently released Bon-Ton...

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DS-Concept has recently on-boarded a major global provider of technology products that sells networking hardware, telecommunications equipment and high-tech services. The company is headquartered in New Jersey and averages $40 million in sales annually. The company approached DS-Concept to fund their European sales originating from their subsidiary in the Netherlands. While established in the U.S. for over ten years, the European subsidiary has been in operation for under two years and, because of their relatively short sales history, they had...

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Big Data and value based thresholds in the EU Authorities in Europe are debating the role of Big Data in merger control. The debate has been triggered by a concern about the market power that companies can obtain from their ownership of data - perhaps helped by strong feelings about privacy issues - and the frustration that certain high value deals involving Big Data companies nearly escaped European merger control.  Read Houthoff Buruma's briefing on this topic here. Houthoff Buruma's vision on...

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Directors "can avoid entire fairness review of a self-dealing transaction by demonstrating that the transaction has been ratified by a fully informed and uncoerced vote of a majority of disinterested stockholders, in which case business judgment will apply and plaintiff must meet the standard for pleading a waste claim." Reprinted with permission from the May 3, 2017 edition of the Delaware Business Court Insider. © 2017 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. (ALMReprints.com,...

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Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is pleased to present the latest edition of The Entrepreneurs Report. In this issue, we've compiled a range of data on venture financing transactions in which the firm was involved in Q1 2017, with the objective of identifying relevant trends in activity and valuation levels for the U.S. venture capital industry in general. We also provide data on bridge loans. In addition, we feature an interview with Justin Klein of New Enterprise Associates (NEA)...

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by Bruno Gasparotto   The question of the scope of the cost-sharing VAT exemption, also referred to in the Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 as amended ("EU VAT Directive") as “Independent Groups of Persons” or “IGPs”, is currently being debated at the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) in several cases.    Last Thursday marked the first milestone regarding this specific VAT exemption since the CJEU released its judgment in the case Commission v Luxembourg (C-274/15).   In this judgment, the CJEU essentially...

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