As most of the population is aware, to try and preserve the economy and businesses viable during the COVID-19 pandemic, congress passed the CARES Act. That bill included the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), in which small businesses could receive government funded loans to cover certain payroll costs to help employee finances during the shutdown that the country experienced in 2020. With this federally financed program, also came requirements, policies, procedures, and anti-fraud tools that have resulted in investigations and enforcement...

EU set to use trade to strengthen its foreign affairs powers On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a new economic trade defence tool to protect itself and its Member States from coercion by third states. The new tool is a direct result of EU Member States having increasingly become the target of third countries looking to exert economic pressure on them in recent years for political concessions. Specifically, the Commission’s new “anti-coercion” tool comes after the U.S. administration under Donald Trump...

Via’s TransitTech revenue has more than doubled in the last year as demand for its software grows globally November 30, 2021 (New York, NY) — Via, the global leader in TransitTech, today announced $130 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $3.3 billion. The round was led by Janus Henderson with participation from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, ION Crossover Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and existing investor Exor. Demand for software that can transform legacy transportation systems into advanced...

Bern – Switzerland plans to further develop bilateral ties with the EU. At the same time, links with other important trade partners are to be strengthened, including with the USA and China. This is stipulated in the federal government’s revised foreign economic policy strategy. The Federal Council published its revised foreign economic policy strategy on Wednesday. According to a press release, this serves to “set the course for the federal government's foreign economic policy in the medium to long term”. It aims...

Given the exposure to industries such as hospitality, fashion, information technology, and science, among others, at Cea Legal, we are often hired to draft non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which are contracts establishing a confidential relationship, when the parties acknowledge that sensitive information they may obtain in the course of the business relationship should not be disclosed to any other party. Simply, NDAs enable the parties to share information while mitigating the risk that it will be misused as a result of...

The Commission’s Communication “A competition policy fit for new challenges” (link) (the “Communication”) identifies key areas in which competition law and policy can support European efforts in dealing with the challenges of the green and digital transitions. The document covers all areas of competition law (antitrust, merger control, and State aid) and identifies various ways in which new and existing tools can contribute to addressing these challenges. While the document does not break new ground, it provides a comprehensive overview...

In this News Update, we discuss new European regulations on crowdfunding and regulatory publications on climate risks. We further highlight some other financial regulatory publications issued last month. EUROPEAN REGULATIONS ON CROWDFUNDING SERVICE PROVIDERS FOR BUSINESS On 10 November 2021, Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European Crowdfunding Service Providers ("ECSP") for business started applying across the EU. The ECSP lays down uniform rules for the provision of investment-based and lending-based crowdfunding services related to business financing. Compared to the existing regulations in the Financial...

World leaders representing governments and industry came together in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26 to address how to achieve targets set as part of the Paris Climate Agreement 20151.  The Paris targets—using pre-industrial temperature levels as a baseline—aim to limit the rise in global temperature this century below 2deg Celsius, and to pursue efforts to limit the rise even further to 1.5deg Celsius. Three years after the Paris Agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on 1.5C...