According to a new Russian law, legal entities have to obtain and keep information on their beneficial owners, and to renew this information on a regular basis (at least once a year)
Russia hopes that Islamic banks will help make up for a deficit in international finance caused by sanctions.
EPAM has successfully defended the interests of Transammiak against a RUB 12 million claim brought by the Department of Rosprirodnadzor (Russia's Federal Service for the Supervision of Use of Natural Resources) in the Voronezh region of Russia for damages relating to an ammonia leak.
ACEA’s Tax Guide gives an overview of motor vehicle taxation in the 28 EU member states, the EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) as well as major world markets such as Brazil, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, Turkey and the United States.
On 21 March 2016, Ukraine signed the Hague Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements (“Convention”). This is a major step towards integration of Ukraine into European and global trade and investment environment. Availability of choice of court agreements in Ukraine will ensure yet another instrument of legal protection for businesses engaging in trade with Ukrainian parties or investing into the country.
Since September 2015, both foreign and Russian companies have been required to use databases located in Russia to process Russian citizens’ personal data (PD) (the so-called data localization rule).
On September 18, 2015, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (“FAS”) ruled that Google had abused its dominant position in the market for pre-installed applications on mobile devices with an Android operating system in the Russian Federation. The ruling was affirmed on March 14, 2016 by the Moscow Arbitration Court.
The major trend in the regulator’s merger control approach remains quite liberal. This can be seen in both the regulator’s practice and legislative development. Fines for failure to meet the merger control requirements have not been increased.
In late February 2016 a draft law (No. 1004188-6) setting out to regulate the operations of so-called news aggregators was submitted to the State Duma. The reaction from the business community has been mixed, and public authorities are taking different views too. For example, German Klimenko, the Presidential Adviser on Internet Development, supported the initiative, while Deputy Minister Alexey Volin says the Ministry of Communications and Media does not support the draft law, which equates news aggregators and media.
On February 11, 2016 the Federal Law “On Ratifying the Agreement on Common Principles and Rules for the Circulation of Medical Devices (Medical Goods and Medical Equipment) Within the Framework of the Eurasian Economic Union” and Federal Law “On Ratifying the Agreement on Common Principles and Rules for the Circulation of Pharmaceuticals within the Framework of the Eurasian Economic Union” (Agreements) came into force.
In late 2015 and early 2016, Rospatent registered red, green and blue colours as trademarks for Sberbank, Gazprom and MTS. The companies have, therefore, secured their right to the particular shades: Sberbank now has “green, which is Pantone 349”, MTS has “red, Pantone 485”, and Gazprom has “blue, Pantone 300CV”.
Effective as of 1 January 2016, the National Bank of Ukraine (the “NBU”) adopted Resolution dated 30 December 2015 No. 996 (“Resolution 996”) introducing certain amendments to the procedure of registration of cross-border loans raised by Ukrainian borrowers.