All Legal & Institutional articles – Page 10
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Article
EU Commission calls to ‘strongly discourage’ intra-EU travel
The European Commission has proposed the European Council to discourage non-essential travel between European Union member states amid high Covid-19 infection rates and concerns about new virus variants, while avoiding border closures or blanket prohibitions that would impede the functioning of the internal market and supply chains. ...
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News briefs
U.S. customs is withholding cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang
The U.S. government is increasing its pressure on Chinese interests and authorities to stop engaging in labor practices that violate basic human rights. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has issued a third Withhold Release Order (WRO) for cotton products and tomato products produced in Xinjiang, ...
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News briefs
EU updates supplier/wholesaler/retailer regulations
The European Commission is sounding out companies involved in the sale and distribution of consumer goods and their trade associations to provide input for the reform of a set of guidelines governing dealings between suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. First issued in 2010 and called the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation – ...
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News briefs
U.K., Canada to restrict business with Xinjiang
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the U.K. is seeking to separate British organizations from the extra-judicial detentions and forced labor that Uyghur Muslims and other minorities are undergoing at the hands of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in the province of Xinjiang. Citing “proof from the Chinese authorities’ ...
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News briefs
Nike and Converse file lawsuit against nearly 600 websites
Nike and its Converse subsidiary have filed the biggest lawsuit of the kind, accusing the 186 operators of 589 websites as well as 676 social media accounts for allegedly infringing on various trademarks and attempting to sell “falsely labeled” counterfeit products under their own brand names and that of Nike’s ...
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News briefs
Rothy’s wins lawsuit against Giesswein on pointed-toe loafer
The San Francisco based shoe company Rothy’s has won a patent infringement lawsuit against the Austrian shoemaker Giesswein Walkwaren regarding its pointed-toe loafer-style flats. According to the High Court of Justice’s Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, Giesswein’s “Pointy Flat” shoe infringed on Rothy’s “Pointed ...
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News briefs
FLA members cannot use products from the Xinjiang region
In an unprecedented move, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has prohibited its member companies from sourcing from or producing in the Xinjiang region, in northwest China, because of growing concerns over violations of human and labor rights. The region is home to several ethnic minority groups, including the Uyghur ...
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ArticleEU, China reach in principle an agreement on investments
After seven years of talks, the European Union and China have agreed in principle on an investment agreement after their leaders met on a conference call on Dec. 30. The parties had set the end of 2020 as the deadline to strike a deal. The European Commission said that ...
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ArticleU.K. signs free trade agreements with Turkey, EU
The U.K. and Turkey have signed tariff-free trading arrangements and are committed to reach a ”more ambitious” agreement in the future, according to the British Department for International Trade . The free trade agreement was signed by the U.K.’s International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss and Turkey’s Minister for ...
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News briefs
China launches an anti-trust probe against Alibaba
The Chinese government’s State Administration for Market Regulation ( SAMR ) has launched an anti-trust investigation against the Alibaba Group to verify charges that its marketplaces require merchants to sign exclusive agreements that prevent them from offering products on other internet platforms. Separately, the People’s Bank of China ...
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News briefs
Mexico hikes minimum wage by 15%
The Mexican government increased of the minimum daily wage by 15 percent for 2021 to 141.70 pesos (€5.80-$7.10) from 123.22 pesos (€5.05-$6.18) currently. Conasami, the commission in charge of the minimum wage, noted that the wage had already been risen by 16 percent in 2019 and 20 percent in ...
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ArticleKering investigated by French financial prosecutor
Kering said that the French financial public prosecutor (Parquet National Financier) has opened a preliminary inquiry concerning the company in February 2019. The French luxury goods group added that it had not previously been informed of the inquiry. The comments come following media reports about the prosecutor investigating ...
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ArticleClarks’ landlords criticize the rescue plan’s terms
The British shoe maker Clarks has been accused of freezing landlords out of discussions over its £100 million (€110.9m-$130.0m) bailout by Hong Kong-based private equity firm LionRock Capital . Landlords are furious that despite facing large losses on rent write-offs, they will only represent 25 percent of a ...
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ArticleEU estimates Amazon broke competition rules
The European Commission believes Amazon violated competition rules by unfairly benefiting from non-public data on independent sellers who use its marketplace, it said in its preliminary findings from an antitrust investigation underway against the American e-commerce giant since last year. The European Union’s executive body added it was also ...
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ArticleKurt Geiger plans 500 job cuts over U.K. plan to drop tax-free shopping
Kurt Geiger , a luxury footwear and accessories retailer, plans 500 job cuts, affecting over a quarter of its workforce, early next year after the British government announced that it would abolish tax-free shopping on Dec. 31. The standard value-added tax (VAT) is 20 percent in the U.K. In ...
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ArticleAktiv Schuh, bankruptcy proceedings opened
Just a little more than two months after the ailing shoe retailer Aktiv Schuh filed for bankruptcy, the district court of Berlin-Charlottenburg officially announced the start of insolvency proceedings under self-administration. According to a statement from the court, the proceedings were opened on Oct. 1 and Torsten Martini ...
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Article
EU agrees on common rules for travel restrictions due to Covid-19
The European Council has adopted a recommendation on a coordinated approach to travel restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The council comprises the heads of state or government of the countries forming the European Union, as well as the president of the council and of the European ...
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ArticleGlobal talks on digital tax prolonged to 2021
The 137 countries involved in talks on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) due to the digitalization of the economy have agreed to keep working towards an agreement on the taxation of digital companies by mid-2021, thus acknowledging that they will fail to strike a deal by the end of ...
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News briefs
25 former André stores to be auctioned
Twenty-five former shops of the French footwear retailer André will be auctioned from Oct. 27 to 30 in Grenoble. In July, a Grenoble-based court had chosen François Feijoo to take over André which had filed for insolvency. But, Feijoo only kept 55 of André’s stores, out of a ...
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ArticleCCC Germany files for insolvency under self-administration after pandemic hits sales
The coronavirus pandemic throws yet another footwear chain into disarray, after extended lockdowns last spring and a sluggish summer sent sales plummeting. German footwear retailer CCC Germany GmbH filed for self-administration proceedings under the German insolvency legislation at the Osnabrück District Court. The company, a subsidiary of ...
