Market Abuse Regulation one year in: key issues for employee share plans
European Union on January 7th, 2017
The Market Abuse Regulation (“MAR”) came into force throughout the EU one year ago, with significant impact for companies operating employee share plans. In this article we summarise the impact of the MAR on employee share plans, and some important points of clarification from its first year of operation. The MAR: what’s it all about? […]
Intra Corporate Transfer Directive and international assignments: a patchy picture across the EU
European Union on January 7th, 2017
Many EU member states were due to implement the Intra Corporate Transfer-Directive (“ICT Directive”), into domestic immigration law late last year. To date, the implementation map remains patchy across the EU. However, international employers should be aware of the new Directive, as it is a significant development for employers with international assignment programmes into the […]
Religious attire: practical tips for EU employers
European Union on January 7th, 2017
Throughout the EU, disputes with employees who wear religious clothes or symbols, such as Islamic headscarves and Christian crosses, can be expensive and damaging for employers. Such disputes attract potentially uncapped compensation awards if an employer’s dress code is found to be discriminatory on grounds of religion. However, this law has been interpreted differently across […]
Brexit: Help reassure UK based European employees today
European Union on January 9th, 2016
Since the UK’s decision to leave the European Union following a historic referendum many European nationals and their families will be naturally concerned about their future status in the UK. While we do not know the exact certainties that lay ahead, once Article 50 is triggered, undoubtedly employment laws and legislation will change and there […]
New European data protection regulations herald major changes from 2018
European Union on January 6th, 2016
Businesses both within, and transacting with, the EU need to plan to manage the significant impact and major penalty regime of the new regulations. The Data Protection Directive of 1995 provided only for a basic level of security measures relating to data protection on which EU member states could improve, if they so wished, which […]
EU-US Privacy Shield rejected
European Union on January 4th, 2016
In March 2016, the EU Commission issued a draft decision stating that the Privacy Shield agreement negotiated between US officials and the EU Commission in January 2016, as a replacement for the former Safe Harbor agreement, offered adequate protection for EU citizens’ personal data transferred to and processed in the US (see article here). However, […]
EU-US Privacy Shield published
European Union on January 3rd, 2016
The full details of the Privacy Shield Agreement reached between EU Commission and US government officials at the beginning of February 2016 have now been published. Where we left off As previously reported, the Privacy Shield Agreement (which was designed to replace the Safe Harbor scheme that was ruled unlawful by the Court of Justice […]
EU data protection reform to usher in far reaching changes for businesses by 2018
European Union on January 1st, 2016
Following four years of negotiation, agreement has been reached between the various European Union (EU) institutions (the Commission, the Council and the EU Parliament) on reform of data protection laws to be applicable across all EU member states, applicable from 2018. At present, although the existing directive of 1995 requires all member states to […]
Changes to the accounting treatment for share-based payments
European Union on January 10th, 2015
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is considering changes to the accounting treatment for share-based payments under IFRS2. The changes would allow an award that is settled net of withholding taxes to be treated as entirely equity settled for accounting purposes. In many countries where companies operate equity incentive arrangements for employees (including the UK […]
Employee data transfers to the US: The end of the Safe Harbor scheme
European Union on January 10th, 2015
On 6 October 2015 the Court of Justice in the European Community (European Court) gave its judgment in the case brought by Max Schrems concerning the validity of the US Safe Harbor scheme and concluded that it does not adequately safeguard EU citizens’ personal data. The case Facebook’s EU subsidiary is based in Ireland and […]