The EU’s geoblocking regulation enforced as of December 2018 will significantly change the obligations of the online merchants and service providers. From this point forward, cross-border trade might mean in worst cases additional tax obligations and performing product and consumer protection obligations of other countries. As of 3 December 2018, the geoblocking in cross-border sales Read more
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Sworn notaries of Latvia have obtained rights to perform notarized certifications of different documents electronically. On 8 March of 2018 were adopted “Amendments to the Notariate Law” (hereinafter referred to as the – amendments) [1], which have supplemented the Notariate law with the new chapter E1 “Electronic certifications”. The chapter E1 “Electronic certifications” has entered Read more
Effective 1 January 2018 companies in Latvia are subject to Corporate Income Tax (CIT) only on their profits that are distributed (or deemed distributed). The undistributed profits are not taxed. So does it mean that Latvian CIT is 0%? Corporate income tax rate is 20%. However, certain expenses deemed to be taxable similar to profit Read more
The problem that has arisen in practice, where Estonian companies are unable to open a bank account, will receive a solution no later than the 1st of January 2019, when Estonian companies will have the option to open an account in a foreign credit or payment institution. Read more
The European Court of Human Rights passed a judgement in a case last year where the main issue was whether or not the court had ordered excessively large compensation for non-pecuniary damage for defamation. More precisely, was the 1,25 million euros ordered by the Court of Justice of Ireland too big a sum for publishing Read more
In May 2018 the amendments to the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (“the Law”) came into force, which aimed to strengthen the Latvian state financial system by reducing the number of high-risk transactions with particularly high-risk customers, which are shell companies. At present, the Law sets the characteristic features of Read more
There have been no major acquisitions of any listed companies in Estonia for a couple of years already. With the exception of Järvevana (2014), the latest acquisitions date back to the previous decade – Norma (2010), Estonian Telecom (2009), Saku Brewery(2008) etc. Also, considering the importance of OEG for the stock exchange and for minority Read more
As of May 25, 2018, General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, hereinafter GDPR or Regulation) becomes enforceable. It applies if data controller (data collector) or processor, or the data subject (physical person) is EU-based. GDPR establishes wide corrective powers for supervisory authorities (Data state inspectorate in Latvia), including power to impose an administrative fine Read more
Mr. Manni was a director of Italiana Costruzioni Srl, an Italian building company that was awarded a contract for the construction of a tourist complex. He found out that he was losing clients who performed background checks of the company. Read more
On 11th May, Advocate General Szpunar of European Union Court of Justice delivered an opinion in preliminary ruling procedure C-343/15. In Spain, the issue in proceedings was a service by the name of UberPop, whereby non-professional private drivers transport passengers using their own vehicles. Read more