By Sam Willie

In a recent ruling from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts, Switzerland's Bank Sarasin was found to have mis-sold $200 million of investment products to a prominent Kuwaiti family. An interesting article from Reuters posits that the ruling is representative of the DIFC Courts’ increasing presence within the international business sphere. The independent judicial system, established in 2006, handles disputes within Dubai and offers an alternative to courts outside the Middle East, like courts in London and New York. Reuters notes that the courts are entrepreneurial in nature and have cherry picked what they consider to be best business practices from a variety of legal systems in an attempt to create an attractive jurisdiction.

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October 13, 2014

By Sam Obenhaus

The European Union’s plan to implement a harmonized financial transaction tax (FTT) likely violates customary international law, according to an E.U. Council legal service memorandum obtained by the Financial Times.  The non-binding opinion finds FTT “exceeds member states’ jurisdiction” by taxing covered transactions made by E.U.-headquartered companies and their counterparties regardless of where the trades were executed.  As a result, trades made outside E.U. jurisdiction, including New York, would be subject to the tax.  The proposal, which is designed to reduce tax avoidance, is still supported by the E.U. Tax Commissioner, Algirdas Semeta, who continues to defend FTT’s legality.

Read more on this story at the Financial Times.

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September 14, 2013