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On July 17, 2020, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA“) published a request for comments on the letter of attestation process in connection with the export restrictions on certain personal protection equipment (“PPE“).  These restrictions were imposed earlier this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our previous blog posts…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply of essential goods and services around the world, including Singapore, and such disruptions have required competitors to temporarily collaborate to sustain or improve the supply of essential goods and services. To provide clarity on whether such collaborations will fall afoul of the Singapore Competition Act (Cap. 50B) (the “Act”), the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (“CCCS”) has issued the “CCCS Guidance Note on Collaborations between Competitors in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic” (“Guidance Note”).

What has happened? This July, the German Federal Council approved, with changes, an amendment to the German Batteries Act (Batteriegesetz, “BattG”) suggested by the German cabinet. The bill became necessary, as the current German system of battery take-back was no longer sustainable. The legal structure imposed an unfair burden upon GRS Batterien, Europe’s largest collection scheme, which became increasingly financially unattractive and was therefore abandoned by many battery manufacturers who set up their own take-back schemes.

The new Batteries Act aims to set a level playing field. In addition, it introduces a registration obligation for anyone placing batteries on the German market and it transposes certain new requirements under the amended Waste Framework Directive into German law.

The CMA has begun to take action against businesses operating in the holiday accommodation sector that it considers are failing to comply with the law.

This follows the CMA guidance in late April on consumer cancellations and refunds, and the announcement that it would be focusing on the sectors against which it had received the most complaints. On 9 June the CMA press release stated that “following CMA action, a major holiday lets company is now offering refunds for cancelled bookings, while others are facing further scrutiny over their policies”.

What measures have EMEA governments taken in the life sciences sector to fight COVID-19? As COVID-19 rapidly spreads to every corner of the globe and is officially declared a pandemic, governments across the world are adopting emergency measures to fight against this extraordinary situation. Ultimately, all these measures are aimed…