We’re pleased to present the eleventh edition of Ukrainian Laws in Wartime: Guide for International and Domestic Businesses, a brief overview of the key features of wartime legislation.
At the end of March, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine published its Annual Report for 2022.The AMC focused on markets that are strategically important for the country, including the markets for: (i) electricity, (ii) natural gas, (iii) light oil products, (iv) housing and communal services, (v) construction materials (i.e., cement), (vi) medicines, (vii) real estate, (viii) information technologies, (ix) retail, and (x) other industry sectors.
In this regional update, we provide you with a practical overview of the most notable antitrust legal developments of Quarter 1 in 2023 that may affect your business.
Baker McKenzie is proud to launch a series of webinars aimed at helping regulators’, legal practitioners’ and business leaders develop a deeper understanding of law and ESG issues in the Asia Pacific region.
Resolution 905/23 of Commerce Secretariat introduces important changes to the merger control procedure. These changes should enter into force 30 days after the publication of the Resolution in the official gazette (i.e., 15 June).
Competition authorities the world over have observably expanded their consideration of transactions from applying a purely competition-focused lens to one that incorporates the broader needs of society. Many African merger control regimes have developed a competition policy approach that balances traditional competition law considerations with public interest concerns, especially in terms of market concentration, access to competitive markets for small and medium enterprises and employment considerations.
The Thai competition regulator, the Trade Competition Commission of Thailand, recently imposed fines on real estate developers for not submitting merger notifications within the statutory period.
The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice announced that it reached a settlement in its litigation challenge against ASSA ABLOY AB’s proposed USD 4.3 billion acquisition of Spectrum Brand Holding Inc.’s Hardware and Home Improvement division. The settlement, which came in the middle of trial and is now subject to court approval, is the first negotiated settlement under DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter. Notably, comments from the judge during the trial suggested skepticism towards the DOJ’s position and potential difficulties for the DOJ in winning its case. Without the settlement, this case may have been next in a recent number of DOJ litigation losses.
Most major companies have implemented a compliance program but often struggle with two issues: ensuring the compliance program remains effective in light of their existing and changing landscape and making it more efficient by leveraging technology. The Compliance Cockpit specifically addresses both issues.
A federal judge granted six individual defendants’ joint motion for judgment of acquittal in a criminal antitrust trial involving allegations that the defendants conspired to allocate the labor market for aerospace industry employees. The ruling was issued mid-trial before the jury was asked to deliberate. This ruling marks another loss for the Department of Justice in a series of no-poach and wage-fixing criminal prosecutions and is significant because the court held that the alleged no-poach agreement did not constitute a per se market allocation violation as a matter of law.