Member News

Houthoff | The interplay between transfer pricing and a tax governance code in the Netherlands

On Friday 5 March 2021, the Dutch Ministry of Finance (the "Ministry") organised a Tax Governance Code webinar. The webinar was held following the release of an essay bundle, Tax governance, social responsibility, and ethics. Time for a tax code? (the "essay bundle"), by the Ministry in December 2020. While the essay bundle is a local Dutch initiative, it can be seen as a continuation of the ongoing international tax reform which started with the OECD's BEPS Project in 2013. In this News...

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Member News

Portolano Cavallo | Protecting Business Know-How: Criminal and Employment Consequences of Employee Data Theft

This article is part of Portolano Cavallo’s “INFORM@Digital & IP” Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. | Protecting business know-how in the context of the employment relationship is also about preventing and managing data theft. As businesses increasingly rely on digital information storage, the risk of data exfiltration of financial records, customer information, and intellectual property/trade secrets is also increasing. Data theft often occurs when an employee leaves an organization to work for a competitor and transfers data from the company’s electronic archives to...

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Chapter News

Report confirms SURE’s success in protecting jobs and incomes

The EU Commission has published its first preliminary assessment of the impact of SURE, the €100 billion instrument designed to protect jobs and incomes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report finds that SURE has been successful in cushioning the severe socio-economic impact resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. It has helped to ensure that the increase in unemployment in the beneficiary Member States during the crisis has been significantly smaller than during the global financial crisis, despite them experiencing a...

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Chapter News

ECB | The paradox of banknotes: understanding the demand for cash beyond transactional use

1. Introduction A phenomenon referred to as the “paradox of banknotes” has been observed in the euro area; in recent years, the demand for euro banknotes has constantly increased while the use of banknotes for retail transactions seems to have decreased. Recent payment surveys indicate that the share of cash transactions in the euro area has decreased. This, together with ongoing digitalisation in retail payments, might have been expected to lead to a decrease in the demand for cash. However, this reduction in...

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Chapter News

The 37 Member Countries of OECD appoint Mr. Mathias Cormann of Australia to be next Secretary General starting 1 June 2021

Today, the Council of the OECD composed of Ambassadors representing the 37 Member Countries, took the formal decision to appoint Mr. Mathias Cormann of Australia to become the sixth Secretary-General of the Organisation, for a 5 year-term beginning on 1 June 2021. Member countries took this decision following the conclusion of the seven-month Selection Process led by the Dean of the Council, and chair of the Selection Committee, Ambassador Christopher Sharrock of the United Kingdom, that began in August 2020....

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Member News

Arendt | Online intermediation services: new law for implementing the Platform-to-Business Regulation

Entry into force of the law of 5 March 2021 on certain rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No. 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services. On 14 March 2021, the law of 5 March 2021 on certain rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting...

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Member News

Vulcan Insight | European Commission Presents Digital COVID Travel Certificate

With the EU’s vaccine rollout beginning to gather steam and the beginning of the continent’s coveted summer season only a few months away, the European Commission this week presented its much-anticipated digital green travel certificate. Designed to bring some badly needed relief to citizens desperate for some holidays abroad, a travel industry which has in essence been shut down for almost a year, and the southern European economies heavily reliant on tourism, the certificate is seen by many as the...

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Member News

Loyens & Loeff | The ECJ affirms the right to remain silent for individuals

In a recent decision, the ECJ affirms the right to remain silent for individuals prosecuted for administrative offence of a criminal nature and denies to member states the possibility to impose sanctions for failure to cooperate to the investigation. Such protection is however not recognized to legal persons. Factual and procedural background The Italian market surveillance authority (the “Consob”) fined an individual a total amount of 300,000 EUR for administrative offences of insider dealing and unlawful disclosure of inside information. It...

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Brexit News, Member News

Noerr | Brexit: European Commission submits draft adequacy decision

By entering into a Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the EU and the United Kingdom averted a “no deal” Brexit at the last second and established a provisional legal foundation until 30 June 2021 for data transfers to the United Kingdom (for more background, please see: Data protection implications since January 1, 2021). However, no decision has been reached as yet on whether and how data transfers into the United Kingdom would be possible after the transitional period. On 19 February 2021, the European Commission published...

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Member News

Stout | Navigating the Energy Market During COVID-19: Accounting Considerations

Watch On-Demand Webinar: Navigating the Energy Market During COVID-19 "When we look at this past year with COVID-19, it made for a very interesting year. Some of the more pertinent areas that we've found have been across the area of impairment, modifications to contracts for both leases and debt, restructuring activities, disposals of assets and businesses going concern issues as well as accounting for the PPE loans that were a direct result of events from this year. Given our time today,...

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