The EACCNY member Cost Containment Advisors is pleased to provide the following summaries of recent developments pertaining to property taxes levied in the power, energy, infrastructure and asset-intensive industry sectors. In the center of contemplation are the states Virginia, South Carolina, North Dakota, Colorado and Alaska. VIRGINIA – Supreme Court holds City of Richmond could not impose tax on natural gas consumed solely for purpose of generating electricity. Virginia Electric and Power Company operates a gas-fired electric generation station located...

After a record year in 2015, foreign direct investments (FDI) inflow to Hungary continued to rise in the first half of 2016, with 38 successfully negotiated projects in the value of USD 1.5 billion, almost as much as in 2015 all over. Germany has been the biggest investor of the country for decades, however in H1 2016 USA ranked on the top of the investment projects list in Hungary. Such prestigious names as IBM, Alcoa, BorgWarner decided to further...

Houlihan Lokey's Consumer, Food & Retail Group is pleased to announce that Milk Specialties Global, a portfolio company of Kainos Capital LP, has been acquired by an affiliate of American Securities LLC. Financial terms were undisclosed. The transaction closed on August 16, 2016. This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the food & beverage industry. Founded in 1949, Milk Specialties Global is a leading human and animal nutrition company. The company's Human Nutrition business unit is a leading manufacturer...

Drafting a social media policy in compliance with Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “the Act”) has become increasingly challenging for employers, as the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the Board”) continues to parse individual words and phrases in employers’ social media policies.  Enforcing that policy can be even more challenging as the Board and counsel struggle to apply the 1930s concept of “protected concerted activity” to employees’ burgeoning 21st century social media activity. ...

Antonio Cairoli just misses MXGP victory by one point while Jeffrey Herlings gets back to winning ways in MX2. The Dutchman and Tim Gajser continue to front the MX2 and MXGP championships The superb TT Circuit Assen – a stage that has seen many famous battles in road racing – hosted the FIM Motocross World Championship for the second year in a row. The track built for the sixteenth round of 2016 season and the Grand Prix of the Netherlands...

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. This month, the brief reports below cover the United Kingdom, Greece, and Portugal. IPTI has put together a selection of reports from recent articles contained in IPTI Xtracts (see website www.ipti.org for more information). United Kingdom: consultation paper on business rates In the UK there is uproar about an issue that...

This is not a trivial question because the supervisory authority designated in each Member State will now be entitled to impose more stringent administrative sanctions under the new General Data Protection Regulation ('GDPR') than what is currently possible. And that’s not all: sanctions can otherwise be imposed by courts also.  So, what could happen when one violates data protection rules? The administrative sanctions imposed by the supervisory authority are two-fold: it can (i) take one or more of the measures listed in...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) has published “interim” regulations detailing a new framework and legal procedures for investigating potential evasion of antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) liability.  A process has now been put in place that allows domestic manufacturers or competitors to file allegations of AD/CVD evasion and participate in the investigation thereof. The new framework provides for strict time deadlines that will require immediate and comprehensive responses from the targeted importers. These interim regulations are effective immediately. Interested...