On 30 March 2022, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC“) adopted the guidelines on the merger control procedure during the time of the martial law in Ukraine (the “Guidelines“).

On March 4, 2022 the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) published the Communiqué No. 2022/2 on the Amendment of Communiqué No. 2010/4 on the Mergers and Acquisitions Subject to the Approval of the Competition Board (“Amendment Communiqué”). The Amendment Communiqué introduces certain new regulations concerning the Turkish merger control regime, which will fundamentally affect the notifiabiliy analysis of the transactions and the merger control notifications submitted to the Authority.

In a preliminary ruling following a request by the German Federal Court of Justice (case C-371/20), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) interpreted Point 11 of Annex I to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (Directive 2005/29/EC; UCP-Directive). This provision aims at preventing the use of editorial content in the media to promote a product where a business has paid for the promotion without making this clear in the content or through images or sounds clearly identifiable by the consumer (advertorial).

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. But in the case of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, it just might be. Russia breached Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Russia's acts have prompted the EU, the UK and the US to impose economic sanctions, such as freezing assets and disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments network. Whilst the number of private businesses that are halting their activities in Russia is steadily growing, Russia has adopted a law paving the way for expropriations of assets of foreign firms that leave the country following economic sanctions. But what can foreign companies do if Russia proceeds to take their assets, if they are unable to freely transfer returns from investments out of Russia or if their profits collapse?

Iurie Cojocaru and Anca Diaconu have been promoted to Partner at Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen.

From promoting a new brand to preserving the market presence of an already established one, User Generated Content (“UGC”) has become an uncanny tool to initiate and preserve consumer engagement. With that, social network providers have transformed from mere conduits of social interaction between individuals, to multifaceted platforms that enable businesses to reach their consumers. As UGC became more and more mainstream, pulled millions of users and created some of the biggest tech companies, many countries try to catch up with regulations such as Turkey.