Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (JD Supra European Union)

On 23 October 2019, the European Parliament and the European Council adopted the Whistleblower Protection Directive (Directive) to set a minimum standard for the protections EU member states must provide to whistleblowers.

The European Commission (EC) has proposed legislation to curb M&A, public procurement and market conduct by foreign-subsidized companies that may distort the European Union’s internal market. New requirements include...

The new Article 22 EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) Guidance released by the European Commission (EC) enables the EC to review any acquisition, even those that do not qualify for notification under national (or EU) merger control rules.

Takeaways - While the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) includes new commitments by the parties on tax, certain EU-derived tax rules will remain relevant in the UK. - That is actually a good thing in one respect: UK issuers equity will not face new stamp costs on issuances. - State aid rules have given way to state subsidy rules, but with significant flexibility on both sides and aid

In a letter dated August 18, 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) wrote to the European Commission (EC) on certain topics it considers a priority to address in the context of the EC’s review of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), which is occurring seven years after the AIFMD was passed into law on July 22, 2013....

In this month's edition, we examine the Swiss data protection authority's comments on the validity of its data-sharing framework with the U.S., as well as the European Data Protection Board's guidance on joint controllers and social media. We also review the Ninth Circuit's ruling regarding the NSA's metadata collection program, a district court ruling allowing a biometrics lawsuit against...

While the outbreak of COVID-19 brought primary issuances of high-yield in Europe to a standstill starting in late February 2020 (lasting close to two months), in June the markets resumed the brisk pace of primary issuances that took place in January and February. Total European high-yield issuances by volume in the first half of 2020 were only slightly below the same period in 2019. Both sponsor-b

The European Commission’s (EC) June 2020 white paper proposing wide-ranging controls over foreign-subsidized companies’ access to Europe’s internal market has received fresh impetus. In a report issued earlier this month, the European Union’s (EU) audit body faulted the EC for a hitherto balkanized approach to foreign state-backed acquisitions. Senior administration officials have committed to...

The list of events for which 2020 will be remembered continues to grow and we are only two thirds of the way through the year. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have come into focus in the financial community, with different stakeholders taking varying positions on factors within the three limbs. Consider, for example, the recent data from Morningstar that shows assets under...

Interest in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies of companies and their impact on the wider community has continued to increase amongst institutional investors, retail shareholders and the media during the first half of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement have both resulted in the “S” in ESG becoming rapidly more important as companies seek to...

On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) struck down the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield as a valid mechanism for transferring personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States (Schrems II). The European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for data transfers remain valid but are subject to increased due diligence on the part of data exporters to

Summary - The European Commission (EC) has proposed far-reaching new powers to investigate and sanction foreign subsidies that have allegedly distortive effects on the European Union’s (EU) internal market. The proposals include...

In her opinion issued on June 4, 2020, Advocate General (AG) Juliane Kokott recommended that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dismiss in its entirety the appeal by Lundbeck A/S and Lundbeck Ltd against the General Court’s 2016 ruling upholding the European Commission’s (the Commission) 2013 infringement decision in its first “pay-for-delay” case.

The coronavirus pandemic has weakened European economies and companies. EU and national governments have expressed concern that foreign investors may opportunistically take advantage of the crisis to acquire domestic companies regarded as strategic.

In this series, “Critical Thinking in the Time of COVID-19,” our European tax practice examines the next stage of analysis for corporates that have begun digesting the economic and legal impact of COVID-19 on their businesses. This edition covers the area of European fiscal state aid.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to much uncertainty regarding continuing pay for employees who are unable to work from home, as well as overall job security, in the face of employers’ financial uncertainty.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly around the world, and countries take unprecedented measures to contain the spread of the disease, businesses are increasingly struggling with the economic impact of this crisis. While airlines, tour operators and event businesses have been among the first to be affected, many industry sectors are starting to feel the impact of the far-reaching social...

In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine five amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act, the EU Court of Justice's rulings on the "Right to Be Forgotten" and what qualifies as a joint controller, as well as a Welsh court's precedent-setting ruling on facial recognition technology. We also take a look at a Texas federal judge's ruling to stay a case...

On September 24, 2019, the EU General Court (General Court) issued its long-awaited judgments in relation to the appeals brought against two European Commission (EC) decisions of 2015 concluding that tax rulings granted by The Netherlands and Luxembourg conferred illegal state aid on Starbucks and Fiat, respectively. This follows the General Court’s decision earlier this year to annul the EC’s...

On March 19, 2019, the European Union adopted a regulation for the screening of foreign direct investments into the EU (the Regulation). The Regulation sets forth national security factors that EU member states (Member States) and the EU Commission (the Commission) may consider when assessing foreign direct investments by non-EU investors. The Regulation entered into force on April 10, 2019, and...

On April 4, 2019, the European Commission published a report1 prepared by three special advisers (the Advisers) appointed by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager to explore how EU competition policy should evolve in the digital age. In the report, the three authors, all academics, share their views on the application of competition rules to platforms, data, and digital and tech “killer”

Data protection laws in Europe evolved substantially in 2018, with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS Directive) becoming national law at the member state level. These legislative developments come on the heels of impactful international data breach and cybersecurity incidents. Together, they...

The geopolitical environment continues to drive reform of foreign investment rules in Europe, with government proposals clarifying and tightening such rules in the interest of national security. Recent foreign state-backed investments in critical European Union infrastructure, in particular, have sparked concerns that the EU’s collective security is jeopardized by the lack of a harmonized foreign

On September 26, 2018, the EU General Court (the Court) upheld the European Commission’s refusal to reinvestigate GlaxoSmithKline SA’s (GSK) Spanish “dual-pricing” distribution arrangements, 20 years after the alleged conduct to which the complaint related.

Despite 20 years of robust legislative activity in the field of consumer protection and the 2013 European Commission recommendation on collective redress mechanisms, a harmonized approach to collective redress such as group or class actions does not exist throughout the European Union. That may change if the European Commission’s “New Deal for Consumers” is adopted; the legislative package,...

Private equity (PE) fundraising in Europe hit €91.9 billion in 2017, the highest it has been since 2006.1 Of that amount, €71.7 billion was invested in European companies, an increase of 29 percent year over year. This record fundraising in the highly competitive European PE market has led to a number of trends, including a continued rise in the levels of dry powder, the increasing prevalence of...

In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine Brazil's new data protection regulation, the French data protection authority's warning to two companies of potential GDPR violations and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's announcement of a new cybersecurity center aimed at public-private coordination. We also take a look at the Sixth Circuit's decision involving...

On July 18, 2018, the European Commission (Commission) imposed a fine on Google LLC for the alleged abuse of a dominant market position pertaining to Android mobile devices. Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. (Alphabet), were fined €4.34 billion, the largest fine ever imposed on a single undertaking by the Commission. The fine was calculated on the basis of Google's revenue from search...

The European Commission (EC or the Commission) announced on July 24, 2018, that it has imposed a total fine of €111 million on four consumer electronics manufacturers — Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer — for imposing fixed or minimum resale prices on their online retailers in breach of European Union competition rules. The Commission found that the four manufacturers were engaged in “fix

In large part as a response to China’s national industrial goals and subsequent Chinese acquisitions of U.S. and European companies that are technology leaders in key industries, the U.S. government and a number of European governments are seeking to expand the scope of their national security reviews of foreign investments.