18 November 2016
The Tagansky District Court has published its exceptional decision in the case of Roskomnadzor (the Russian supervisory authority for telecommunications, information technology, and the media) vs the LinkedIn Corporation. The court ruled that the company’s activity in Russia was in breach of Russian legislation on personal data. The Moscow City Court in its resolution as per November 10, 2016 did not overturn the decision: LinkedIn.com has been blocked in Russia.
26 September 2016
In September 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC”) handed down a significant decision holding a major global pharmaceutical company and its four Ukrainian distributors liable for uncompetitive conduct that resulted in overcharging for drugs in Ukrainian public tenders.
14 July 2016
On 31 May 2016, Ukrainian Parliament passed a law[1] to significantly simplify the market access for certain categories of medicinal products. In particular, the law introduces a streamlined registration (marketing authorization) process for any drugs already authorized by competent authorities of (i) the U.S., Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada and (ii) the EU under centralized authorization procedure, in each case for use in relevant countries. Such registration is to be performed within 17 business days and involve a limited documentation check, without a full-scale local review of the registration dossier. The law entered into effect on 19 June 2016. However, bringing it to life still requires approval of a number of by-laws that are being developed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. When implemented, simplified registration procedures are expected to reduce the market entry barriers for international pharmaceutical business.
6 July 2016
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)
24 March 2016
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.
15 March 2016
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).
1 March 2016
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.
25 February 2016
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.
19 February 2016
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”.
15 January 2016
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.