On 22 May 2024, the Italian Constitutional Court held a public hearing to discuss the issue of the legitimacy of medical device payback regulation, as raised by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, for conflicting with Articles 3, 23, 41, and 117 of the Constitution.
The European Medicines Agency’s Medicines Shortages Steering Group recently developed a list of recommendations in hopes of increasing the availability of critical medicines flagged for supply chain vulnerabilities or risks.
The European Parliament voted in favor of a digital EU Health Data Space for electronic health records. Despite various policy concerns about data privacy, increasingly urgent health demands render efficient access to personal electronic health data necessary across all Member States.
The European Parliament has adopted the new AML/CFT legislative package, which aims to comprehensively strengthen the EU rules to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, including the establishing of a new EU authority to supervise directly the riskiest entities, an EU limit on large cash payments up to EUR 10,000, and more detailed, directly applicable rules regarding customer due diligence and beneficial ownership.
The Belgian government adopted a bill which makes significant changes to the Belgian investment deduction regime that will take effect as of FY 2025. The changes will make this tax incentive significantly more attractive given the current economic environment and climate policies. In this webinar, we discussed the changes in the investment deduction regime that are relevant for your companies, with specific attention to the important new “thematic” investment deduction of 30% and the “technology” deduction that can go up to 20.5% of your investment cost.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems can help improve work processes, yet they also carry the risks of liability, penalties, and reputational damage. Companies deploying AI must understand their responsibilities and obligations under the current regulatory frameworks within the EU and the anticipated requirements of the EU AI Act. Particularly for the HR department, it is prudent for HR managers to implement the following basic principles regarding AI.
On 14 May 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published guidelines on fund names using environmental, social and governance (ESG) or sustainability-related terms. The main purpose of these guidelines is to enhance investor protection with regard to funds named in ways suggesting an investment focus in companies that meet certain sustainability standards. Against this backdrop and after the public consultation launched on 18 November 2022, ESMA clarifies what investors may expect in terms of policies, practices and characteristics of funds consistent with sustainability standards, as also the circumstances where a fund name with ESG or sustainability-related terms is indicative of unfair, unclear or misleading practices.
For the third week, we continued our Annual Compliance Conference with key customs developments impacting on businesses today. Specifically, we discussed the reform of the Union Customs Code in the EU, key trending customs developments in EMEA, and different methods of driving significant financial savings in global supply chains.
The employment tribunal ruled that a Christian actor was not discriminated against because of religion or belief when she was dismissed from the role of a lesbian character and her agency terminated her contract following a social media storm after an old Facebook post was discovered saying that she believed homosexuality to be a sin.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems facilitate work, but harbor risks of liability, penalties, and reputational damage. If companies use AI, they are subject to a number of obligations; this is particularly true for the HR department. Thus, we recommend that HR managers insist on implementing the following basic principles when it comes to AI.