Post europe – benchmark bribery legislation for europe – Postonline
European organisations breathed a sigh of relief on 20 July 2010 when the British Ministry of Justice announced a delay in the implementation of the UK Bribery Act. The act was due to come into force in October 2010, but will now be delayed until April 2011. Although it is tempting to view it this way, these extra few months should not offer a welcome rest bite period for businesses that are unsure how they will comply with the act.
The Bribery Act has struck fear into the hearts of many organisations that see financial incentives as an integral part of their work since it received Royal Assent in April 2010. The act replaces much, and codifies the remainder, of the various fragments of the UK’s existing anti-corruption legislation, dating back to 1889 with the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act. It heralds a new era in the UK’s fight against corruption by establishing distinct general criminal offences for those “offering” and those “accepting” bribes, a new offence for the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery by persons acting on their behalf and a discreet offence for those who bribe foreign public officials.
via Post europe – benchmark bribery legislation for europe – Postonline.
Europe Sets Five-Year Internet Strategy – BusinessWeek
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Half of Europeans subscribing to ultra-high-speed broadband by 2020, bringing an end to the phenomenon of ‘digital virgins’ and the creation of a European cyber-attack rapid response system – these are just some of the ambitious goals contained in the EU’s five-year plan for the online world, unveiled on Wednesday (19 May).
Anxious that the US, Japan and South Korea – still in parts classified as a developing country – are stealing a march on the old continent, where almost a third of people have still never accessed the worldwide web, the European Commission says it is time for a digital revolution.
While today, just one percent of Europeans are signed up to fast fibre-based internet, 12 percent of Japanese have such connections and 15 percent of South Koreans.
“Can you imagine that there are still some 30 percent of Europeans who have never used the internet? Digital virgins, so to say,” Dutch commissioner Neelie Kroes said in announcing the wide-ranging plans. “We want to ensure they all have the opportunity to discover the wonders of the digital world.”
By 2013, Brussels wants all Europeans to have basic broadband and by 2020, for everyone to have access high-speed broadband above 30Mbps, with 50 percent of Europeans able to subscribe to ultra-high-speed rates of above 100Mbps.
via Europe Sets Five-Year Internet Strategy – BusinessWeek.
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E.U. Fines Computer Chip Makers for Price-Fixing | NYTimes.com
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The European Union fined a group of computer chip makers €331.3 million, or $421 million, Wednesday for price-fixing in the first-ever settlement of a cartel case in Europe.
Samsung of South Korea, the market leader, received the highest fine, €145.7 million, and Infineon, based in Germany, was second at €56.7 million.
Those amounts were less than they could have been — by about 20 percent for Samsung and about 50 percent for Infineon — partly because of the settlement and partly because of other leniency arrangements. The new procedure allows for reduced fines in exchange for an agreement under which the companies are expected not to appeal the European Commission’s decision to court.
Micron of the United States, which first reported the cartel to authorities in 2002, escaped a fine.
The E.U. Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia said that the new policy was designed to speed up investigations, free up resources to deal with other cases and generally improve the efficiency of its antitrust enforcement.
via E.U. Fines Computer Chip Makers for Price-Fixing – NYTimes.com.
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Novartis Must Pay Punitive Damages in Sex-Bias Case, Jury Rules – Bloomberg.com
A Novartis AG pharmaceuticals unit discriminated against female sales representatives in the U.S. and must pay $3.4 million to a dozen women plus punitive damages to be decided, a federal jury found.
The jury in Manhattan federal court reached its decision yesterday after a monthlong trial of a class-action lawsuit on claims of discrimination against women at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. unit of Europe’s second-largest drugmaker. The nine jurors’ award to the women for lost pay and other damages came in the first stage of deliberations. The panel will decide on the amount of punitive damages.
The women are part of the Basel, Switzerland-based company’s 14,000-member workforce in the U.S. They’ve said they’re seeking about $200 million in punitive damages. Jurors found that Novartis discriminated against women over pay and promotion and because they got pregnant.
“Novartis has been involved in systemic discrimination since 2002,” David Sanford, a lawyer for the women, said in an interview after the verdict. “The verdict supports the claims of 5,600 women.”
Novartis said in a statement that it is disappointed in the verdict and plans to appeal.
“We believe the plaintiffs’ claims were unfounded,” the company said, adding that it has been “recognized for its commitment to an inclusive environment.”
via Novartis Must Pay Punitive Damages in Sex-Bias Case, Jury Rules – Bloomberg.com.
Google Urged to Bring Street View in Line With EU Privacy Rules – BusinessWeek
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Google Inc.’s Street View mapping service may break EU laws unless it improves the blurring technique it uses to disguise images.
Officials from 30 European countries today supported a measure that would force Google, the owner of the most popular Internet search engine, to take further steps to avoid infringing privacy rights. The proposal would create a coordinated approach to privacy issues arising as Street View is rolled out in Europe, Gerard Lommel, one of the officials, said in an interview today.
“There needs to be a right to object for people, even when the images have not yet been put online,” Lommel, a Luxembourg member of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, said in Brussels. The group isn’t satisfied with what Google has said about the amount of time it needs to store the images for the mapping service.
Google, which has almost 79 percent of the European search- engine market, according to ComScore Inc., faces growing scrutiny from regulators and competitors in Europe. In response to concerns raised by data-protection commissioners from 10 countries last month, Google last week said it’s committed to protecting user’s privacy.
via Google Urged to Bring Street View in Line With EU Privacy Rules – BusinessWeek.
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Legal Privilege Still Elusive for EU’s In-House Lawyers | Corporate Counsel
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In-house lawyers in Europe will have to keep fighting for legal privilege, according to a recent opinion (pdf) by a legal adviser at the European Union‘s highest court. Advocate-General Juliane Kokott of the European Union’s Court of Justice said on April 29 that attorney-client privilege should not apply to in-house corporate lawyers because they are not independent.
“A salaried in-house lawyer, notwithstanding any membership of a Bar of Law Society, does not enjoy the same degree of independence from his employer as a lawyer working in an external law firm does in relation to his client,” Kokott wrote in her opinion. “There is a structural risk that an enrolled in-house lawyer will encounter a conflict of interests between his professional obligations and the aims and wishes of his company.”
In-house corporate lawyers in Europe have been trying to overturn a 1982 ruling that says attorney-client privilege in the EU only applies to communications with outside counsel. Only a few EU member states apply privilege to in-house lawyers: the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands.
via Legal Privilege Still Elusive for EU’s In-House Lawyers.
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MEPs call for improved data security | European Voice
The European Parliament has called on EU negotiators to make sure they get enough safeguards in upcoming talks with the United States to protect the data rights of EU citizens.
MEPs voted through two resolutions today (5 May) that called for a more limited use of personal data collected by US authorities, fearing the data could be abused.
At issue are two separate transfers of data. One is the so-called Passenger Name Records collected by airlines about passengers on transatlantic flights, which are used by US customs and border control agents to screen people who travel to the US.
The Parliament decided to postpone its approval of a 2007 EU-US accord on the transfer of PNR, and a similar arrangement with Australia. They did so to give Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, time to draft a new proposal that would answer calls by MEPs for a global agreement setting out how passenger data can be used and what legal redress citizens have over the use of their data.
The MEPs also want a separate effort to negotiate a deal with the US that would cover all data transfer deals between the two sides.
The other data transfer issue voted on today dealt with information collected on bank transfers from Europe that the US Treasury screens to weed out terrorist financiers. Negotiations on a new so-called Terrorist Tracking Finance Programme between the EU and the US are expected to start later this month. The Parliament rejected an interim deal in February because of concerns that it did no
via MEPs call for improved data security | Policies | Justice | Rights | European Voice.
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Google Opens Up on What Its ‘Street View’ Cars Collect – Digits – WSJ
By now, Google’s cars have driven down roads around the world — and in some places, they’re sparking concerns about just what information they are collecting.
So the Internet-search giant is opening up a bit about the data it compiles. Google is trying to address criticisms that have been leveled against it in European countries in particular and provided details about Street View cars in a post on its European Public Policy Blog on Tuesday. The company said it had discussed the information before but that it wanted to make it more easily accessible.
Privacy officials from 10 countries, including seven in Europe, sent Google a letter earlier this month outlining several concerns. The letter said Google’s Street View service was “launched in some countries without due consideration of privacy and data protection laws and cultural norms” and said “there is continued concern about the adequacy of the information you provide before the images are captured.”
So what does Google get with those cars? As anyone who has used Google Street View knows, cameras on the cars collect photos that are used in Google’s maps, and people who are out and about when the car passes can appear in images. Google reduced the amount of time it retains unblurred images in Europe, bowing to pressure from European privacy authorities. But the company has been urged to cut the time further. Google also allows people to request that images of them be removed, and a Google Germany spokeswoman told Bloomberg in March that the company would announce when it was driving by to take photos in that country.
In addition to photos, the cars gather information about Wi-Fi networks they encounter. This feature isn’t as well known, and it sparked a new round of criticism in Germany last week, with Germany’s federal commissioner for data protection saying he was “horrified” by the discovery. That’s why Google’s recent blog post devotes a considerable amount of time to explaining what Google is doing with Wi-Fi data.
Wi-Fi networks broadcast information such as the name of the network and a number given to the Wi-Fi device. In its post, Google explains that it collects this data to improve location-based services where GPS is slow or unavailable or for devices that aren’t GPS-enabled. Those devices can still triangulate location using transmissions from things like Wi-Fi networks and cellphone towers that Google has identified.
via Google Opens Up on What Its ‘Street View’ Cars Collect – Digits – WSJ.
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‘They Can Sue You’: Navigating the Foreign e-Discovery Mine Field | Corporate Counsel
Handling electronic discovery in a foreign country means navigating a mine field of competing legal interests, in-house lawyer Alexander Shapiro told a group of in-house and outside counsel last week.
Shapiro, managing director and senior managing counsel at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, spoke at the 2010 spring meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law in New York. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, he spent 10 years as a government lawyer, including as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York.
“Private communications in the workplace are a fundamental freedom in Europe,” Shapiro warned. “You have a duty of privacy to your customers in the foreign jurisdiction, and to your employees. They can sue you if you violate it. And some of these foreign laws have criminal provisions.”
One unidentified lawyer in the audience pointed out that in Europe both a company’s in-house lawyer and outside counsel can be charged for violating those laws, as well as the corporation itself.
In addition, Shapiro said some countries have a blocking statute that bars a bank from sending documents out of country for a pretrial proceeding.
So what if you have a U.S. judge demanding discovery of bank documents in Germany? “Your job is to navigate the competing pressures,” Shapiro said. He advised talking to all parties and judges involved, and trying to obtain privacy waivers from employees in a form consistent with local law.
via ‘They Can Sue You’: Navigating the Foreign e-Discovery Mine Field.
Israel bans imports of Apple’s iPad because of wireless disruption concerns – The China Post
Israel has banned imports of Apple Inc.&’s hottest new product, the iPad, citing concerns the powerful gadget’s wireless signals could disrupt other devices. Customs officials said Thursday they have already confiscated about 10 of the lightweight tablet computers since Israel announced the new regulations this week. The ban prevents anyone — even tourists — from bringing iPads into Israel until officials certify that they comply with local transmitter standards.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission allows devices with Wi-Fi capability to broadcast at higher power levels than are allowed in Europe and Israel — meaning that the iPad’s stronger signal could throw off others’ wireless connections, Schubert said.
via Israel bans imports of Apple’s iPad because of wireless disruption concerns – The China Post.
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