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Let's talk antitrust: Discussing recent cases and emerging competition issues
Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
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Global | Publication | November 2018
On November 22, 2018, the Dutch Secretary of Finance sent a letter to parliament laying out his proposal for a new Dutch international tax ruling regime. The current regime was last overhauled in 2004 with the introduction of Advance Pricing Agreements (APA) and Advance Tax Rulings (ATR), both being handled by a centralized unit of the Dutch tax authorities based in Rotterdam. The reform is based on input from independent experts and following from an internet consultation round launched in July of this year. The goal of the currently announced changes is to “secure the quality and to increase its robustness of the ruling practice for businesses with real economic activities”. Changes to the ruling regime will be proposed dealing with (A) transparency of the rulings, (B) internal process for issuing rulings and (C) the content of the rulings.
Under the OECD BEPS project, transparency has been a key issue in the OECD’s efforts to combat aggressive tax planning and tax evasion, with the exchange of information on tax rulings being one of the key deliverables. The same push for transparency can also be found in the efforts of the European Union and its state aid procedures. Although not mentioned in the letter, the current efforts of the Dutch government seem to be partially related to these processes. The government proposes three changes to the ruling regime to increase transparency:
The changes to the ruling practice are amongst others driven by the government’s desire to combat aggressive tax planning and tax evasion. One of the key concerns is the creation of letter box companies that are primarily established in the Netherlands for tax reasons. In light of this, the government proposes the following changes to the ruling practice:
The changes will be explained and included into policy documents in the course of next year. These policy documents (including more examples on economic nexus) will be made public and broadly displayed so that the new ruling policies will be easily accessible and clear for everybody. The aim is to have the new ruling policy enter into force on July 1, 2019.
We recommend reviewing ruling requests in light of these changes, as additional requirements may need to be complied with when tax payers are (i) requesting extensions of existing rulings but also (ii) discussing new or even pending ruling requests. We are obviously more than happy to assist you in reviewing and advising you on your existing, pending and new structures and requests.
Video
Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
Publication
After a lacklustre finish to 2022 when compared to the vintage year for M&A that was 2021, dealmakers expected 2023 to see the market continue to cool in most sectors, in response to the economic headwinds of rising inflation (with its corresponding impact on financing costs), declining market valuations, tightening regulatory scrutiny and increasing geopolitical tensions.
Publication
On 18 September 2023, the CMA published its Initial Report (Initial Report) on AI Foundation Models (FM), supplemented in April 2024 with the publication of its “Update Paper” focused on potential antitrust risks associated with FMs and a “Technical Update Report” providing more detail on the development on FMs (collectively the “Reports”). Below, we consider these CMA publications.
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