Member News

Member News

Member News

Attention Old(er) People… Change or Die

By Joanna Massey, President & CEO, JDMA Inc. With millennials expected to comprise at least half of the workforce by 2020, and Gen Z becoming an ever-larger percentage of employees every year, the key to ensuring inter-generational corporate harmony is education. Senior executives, who mostly comprise the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers and Gen X, must firmly grasp that there are now more of them than there are of us. So, it will not work for a successful business today—much less in...
Member News

European General Court on Starbucks and Fiat: confirms EU State aid control on tax rulings but places heavy burden of proof on the Commission

By Greetje van Heezik, Paulus Merks, Lorenzo Fiorilli, Rezan Ökten | Houthoff  On 24 September, the General Court of the European Union (General Court) issued two landmark judgments following appeals against the decisions of the European Commission (Commission) in the Fiat and Starbucks cases. In these cases, the Commission had found that Luxembourg and the Netherlands had granted unlawful State aid to Fiat and Starbucks respectively, through a number of tax rulings that artificially reduced the amount both multinational groups...
Member News

Empire Global Ventures is helping a Finnish company that makes plastic-free and recyclable food service products to grow their business in the U.S. market

Kotkamills is a Finnish company that makes plastic-free and recyclable food service products. They create products through renewable resources that prioritizes both the environment and consumers.   Why We're Celebrating:  They won the Starbucks and McDonalds-organized 2019 Next Gen Cup Challenge, an award given to the to-go cup that best addresses the concerns of food packaging waste. They were also the recipients of a 2019 Worldstar Packaging Award.    What makes Kotkamills so exciting? The Kotkamills cup is plastic free, biodegradable, and easily recyclable.  The cups and to-go containers that...
Brexit News, Member News

Brexit Update: U.K. Prime Minister’s Decision to Prorogue Parliament Unlawful

By Huw Beverley-Smith, Robert K. Campbell, Scarlett Diamond, James Ellis-Rees, Hans-Christian Mehrens | Faegre Baker Daniels Background The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union is heading towards another periodic climax with the exit date currently set for 31 October 2019. The U.K. Supreme Court today held that the Prime Minister’s decision to shut down, or in legal terms “prorogue,” Parliament during the critical stages of negotiations with the EU was unlawful. This alert provides a brief summary of an...
Brexit News, Member News

U.K. Announces Statement of Changes to Immigration Rules to Take Effect From 1 October 2019

By Claire D. Nilson & Christopher Jefferies | Faegre Baker Daniels The U.K. Government issued a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules on 9 September 2019, followed by an Explanatory Note Shortly thereafter. The changes will take effect over a staggered period of time from 1 October 2019 onward, with the main changes relevant to workers summarised below. EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) Discretionary grounds have been added for refusing an application under the EUSS where the applicant has previously been...
Brexit News, Member News

Vulcan Insight | Analysis of the latest EU Developments 13-20 September 2019

Key Events This Week The week that went from bad to worse for Boris They say a week is a long time in politics. Well this week must have felt like a lifetime for UK PM Boris Johnson. On Monday Johnson travelled to Luxembourg to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. EU officials present at the meeting describe a “penny dropping moment” when Johnson realised that his plans for common “sanitary and phytosanitary” (SPS) rules on the island of Ireland...
Member News

Update on Property Tax Issues: September 2019

The EACC, in partnership with the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), wants to keep its members up to date with the latest developments in property taxes 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).   USA Arkansas: Walmart appeals property-tax decision The property-tax fight between Walmart and Pulaski County is headed to circuit court. The Bentonville-based retailer on Tuesday filed an appeal of...
Member News

Take A Stand—It Is Good for Business

By Joanna Massey, President & CEO, JDMA Inc. Gen Z and millennials have come to expect their favorite corporations to take daring social stands—and any potential divisiveness of the stand itself is usually trumped by a company’s willingness to be completely open about it. Chick-fil-A and Nike are two brands whose stances have stoked controversy, albeit on opposite ends of the political spectrum—and yet both are clear favorites for Gen Z. In Piper Jaffray’s recent bi-annual survey of teen brand popularity, Nike...

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