A political agreement was reached between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission on the EU Cybersecurity Act (Act) and announced on December 10, 2018.

In the 2018 Q4 edition, we look at:

On December 10, 2018, Normative Instruction RFB No. 1,855 ("IN RFB No. 1,855/2018") was published in the Official Gazette, regulating the Special Tax Regularization Program ("PERT") in order to require taxpayers to provide information necessary for the consolidation of debts under the program.

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On December 5, 2018, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense ("CADE") and the Central Bank of Brazil ("BC") agreed upon a joint normative act establishing procedures to better coordinate and increase efficiency of their actions in merger control regulation and competition defense in the financial sector.

On December 5, 2018, the General Court ruled in favor of the European Commission in a case brought by Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (BMS) against the Commission and the European Medicines Agency.

The Prague Rules, also referred to as “Inquisitorial Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration,” will be officially launched on 14 December 2018 in Prague. These rules are intended to constitute a tool available to parties and arbitral tribunals to increase efficiency in international arbitration and to reduce costs.

The Prague Rules can be applied by arbitral tribunals as a binding document or be used as guidelines. Parties and arbitrators can also agree or decide to select or modify the elements they wish to apply.

Following the recent decision by the English Court of Appeal in SFO v ENRC (subject of this Legal Update) in relation to principles governing litigation privilege, the English High Court last week handed down a decision in Sotheby's v Weiss and others [2018] EWHC 3179 in which the "dominant purpose" test was applied to determine whether litigation privilege attached to certain correspondence passing between Sotheby's (the auction house and art dealer) and art experts regarding reports prepared in the context of an art dispute.

As we reported in a "digital economy" update earlier this year, digital taxation has been raising many debates at both the OECD and the EU levels.

In a recent decision, the Cour de cassation (the French civil and criminal Supreme Court) has ruled that a delivery rider using the services of an online platform and an app ("Take Eat Easy"), which connects restaurants, clients ordering food, and delivery riders, may be considered to be an employee of such a platform despite having self-employed status.

Employment & Benefits lawyer Pauline Moritz (Frankfurt) examines the additional contribution to health insurance employers are facing as of January 2019.

Please see the latest issue of The Pensions Brief.

The European General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which came into force over six months ago, illustrates a significant evolution in European data protection law marked by the extension of territorial scope.

Mayer Brown lawyers discuss New York’s “other reasonable method” for apportioning receipts and the opportunity it may provide for certain in-state taxpayers to reduce their New York apportionment percentages, even in light of some prior administrative law judge decisions holding that cost of performance is the only available method.

On November 30, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) adopted a new rule establishing a non-exclusive research report safe harbor (“Rule 139b”) for unaffiliated brokers or dealers that publish or distribute research reports regarding qualifying investment funds. The Commission took this action in furtherance of the mandate of the Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2017 (the “FAIR Act”). The FAIR Act required that the Commission expand the Rule 139 safe harbor for research reports in order to cover research reports on investment funds.