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Antitrust, Competition and Trade

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Antitrust, Competition and TradeCorporate and M&ARegulatory Compliance

Malta Business Registry Issues Notice Regarding Memoranda and Articles of Association

On the 29thJuly, the Malta Business Registry (MBR) issued a notice advising that any memoranda and articles of association being filed with the Registrar of Companies, whether in the course of an incorporation of a new company or as an amendment to memoranda and articles of association of companies already registered, need to be amended in order to refer to certain notification obligations which Maltese companies may be subject to. The required amendment relates to the objects clause of a company’s memorandum and articles of association and the proviso which is generally included which provides that the objects for which…
Mamo TCV Advocates
30th July 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

It’s Official – Most Influencers Do Not Disclose Commercial Content

On 14 February 2024, the European Commission published the results of a screening, known as a “sweep”, of social media posts from influencers that it had carried out together with the national consumer protection authorities of 22 Member States – including Malta –as well as those in Norway and Iceland. The results are out…and perhaps they are hardly surprising. Whilst 97% of influencers were found to publish posts with commercial content, only 20% systematically disclosed these posts as advertising. 38% did not use platform labels to disclose commercial content (for instance the “paid partnership” label on Instagram) but preferred to…
Annalies Muscat
29th February 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Influencer Marketing: Protection for Consumers from #sponsored Posts on Social Media

We all know how important advertising is in the business world. Traders use advertisements as marketing tools to inform customers and consumers about their products. With the rise of technology and social media, advertising is now taking diverse forms. Companies are increasingly turning to a more powerful tool, the ‘influencer’, to advertise their products. This phenomenon is also evident locally.  This article purports to analyse what constitutes influencer marketing and the protection afforded to consumers by Maltese law. What is an ‘influencer’? Maltese law does not define what an influencer is. However, the Consumer Affairs Act (the ‘Act’) defines a…
Laura Spiteri and Annalies Muscat
9th February 2024
Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Google Shopping: The Saga Continues

Following an antitrust investigation, in 2017 the European Commission had fined Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. a record €2.4 billion for abuse of Google’s dominant position. In brief, it found that Google was self-preferencing, by presenting results from its own Google Shopping first upon a so called “Google search”. On appeal to the General Court, the fine was confirmed in 2021. The General Court only accepted part of Google and Alphabet’s argument, namely that there was no negative anti-competitive effect on the market for general search services. Google and Alphabet further appealed the General Court’s judgment to the Court of…
Annalies Muscat
12th January 2024