The European Court of Human Rights (the "ECtHR") has decided the following Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 ("A1-P1") cases during the month of March 2019: Arnaboldi v. Italy (appl. n o . 43422/07) – the ECtHR declared a breach of A1-P1 in a case where the owner of a property in Livorno, Italy, was directed by the Italian courts to bring his action for compensation exclusively against an insolvent company. This company conducted the expropriation on behalf of the Italian government. Yavas and others v. Turkey (appl. n o . 36366/06) – the ECtHR declared that a private p...

On the 2 nd April 2019 the European Commission concluded its high-profile investigation into a UK tax scheme for the intra-group financing of multinationals. The investigation was opened in October 2017 and is a way of ensuring that all companies "pay their fair share of tax". Subject to the investigation were certain UK exemptions on the application of tax avoidance rules to multinationals, which at the time were deemed to potentially fall foul of the EU's state aid regime. The UK has used controlled foreign company rules to prevent companies established within t...

On the 16 th April 2019 the European Parliament approved new rules on the disclosure of information regarding illegal, fraudulent or harmful activities acquired in a work-related context. The draft directive recognizes that persons who work for a public or private organisation or are in contact with it in the context of their work-related activities are often the first to know about threats or harm to the public interest which arise in this context. By 'blowing the whistle' these persons play a key role in exposing and preventing breaches of the law that are harmf...

On Friday, 5 April 2019, the MFSA issued a set of questions and answers ('Q&As') about the Home Equity Release product announced earlier on by the Ministry of Finance. These Q&As are intended to provide the consumers with information to enable them to make an informed decision when they are considering taking up this product. The Regulations about the equity release product will come into force on the 1 st September 2019, following which, credit institutions and financial institutions need to be authorised, to be able to offer such product . The Q&As m...

At the invitation of Society Education, on 21 st March 2019 Mamo TCV Advocates delivered a talk regarding the General Data Protection Regulation ('GDPR'). The event took place at 'the Landmark' in Qormi, Malta. On behalf of Mamo TCV Advocates, Dr Claude Micallef-Grimaud and Dr Warren Ciantar delivered their three-hour presentation titled: 'The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): An Overview of its Most Salient Aspects'. The presentation was split into two parts, with the first examining certain key features of the GDPR including the legal grounds for proces...