By Louise Huson, Dr Sharon Fitzgerald | DLA Piper In the aftermath of the potential De la Rue challenge to the Home Office’s award of passport delivery services to Gemalto, we look at the EU Commission’s challenge to the Austrian State’s decision to award similar services directly to an Austrian national. As contracting authorities build capacity for “front-ending” projects, the potential for conflict of interest between consultants advising on early scoping issues and subsequently bidding in the project’s procurement has to be managed...

By Sandor Karai | Head of Accounting | TMF Hungary Time is running out for VAT-registered companies in Hungary to set up and test their systems ahead of the July deadline. From 1 July 2018, all VAT-registered companies in Hungary are required to report their sales invoice data to the local tax authority in real-time. The reporting will be carried out automatically, via the Hungarian tax authority’s online invoicing portal. Are your reporting systems compatible? What do you need to do to prepare...

By John Forrest, Jeroen Jansen, Valerijus Ostrovskis , Daniel Jones, Matthias Vangenechten | DLA PIPER On 18 June 2018, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/880, extending the restrictive measures introduced by the EU in response to the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation in 2014. The restrictive measures targeting Crimea and Sevastopol will remain in place until at least 23 June 2019. Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/880 extends the measures as established by Council Decision 2014/386/CFSP and in...

By William Rhodes Don’t be fooled. The high levels of volatility in emerging markets and sharp, sporadic pressures on a range of currencies, including those of Argentina, Mexico and Turkey, which holds elections on Sunday, are the opening salvos in a new period of mounting risks and uncertainties. The tensions and challenges in developing economies that will come into ever-clearer focus in coming weeks and months are not being sufficiently recognized to provide assurances that crises will be handled well – or...

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 articles on Germany, Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. There is a separate IPTI report on the...

By Mark Overmann | Vice President of External Affairs | InterExchange InterExchange is excited to announce our most recent cohort of Christianson Grant recipients!  Beatriz, Helen, Luke, and William -- inspirational young Americans out to make a difference -- are volunteering abroad in the fields of public health, education, and the environment. The InterExchange Foundation awarded these grantees a total of $20,000 to pursue their service projects abroad. Find out more about their projects and the impact they're making: Clubfoot to Climate Change: These Christianson Grantees...

VULCAN VIEWKEY EVENTS THIS WEEK: GREECE ‘Historic’ deal reached to end Greece's eight-year bailout programme Eurozone finance ministers met in Luxembourg last night to approve a historic debt-relief package for Greece which will allow it to exit its third bailout scheme next August and bring to a conclusion the eight-year bailout programme. After six hours of last-minute talks, ministers from the Eurogroup thrashed out the final points of the package that will involve a 10-year debt maturity and debt repayment extensions on some...

By Howard Ullman | Orrick  Blockchain technology has burst onto the scene and into the public consciousness over the last few years. While the securities and privacy law questions surrounding blockchain technology have received much attention, perhaps less obvious are the potential antitrust issues raised by the technology. Although these issues are nascent, they are not wholly theoretical. For example, on March 16 the FTC announced that it is creating a Blockchain Working Group to look at, inter alia, competition policy. “Cryptocurrency and blockchain...