The Sharing Economy: a book worth sharing
October 28, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer Nowhere, perhaps, are legal issues emerging more rapidly than in the context of sharing platforms like Airbnb, UBER, LYFT and TURO. What makes this even more interesting for lawyers is that it’s not just the legal issues that are emerging: the industries buying into this model are emerging […]
Canada’s enforcement void: of tax cheats and money launderers
October 18, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer Tax cheats and money launderers, it seems, are all the rage in Canadian and international news again. But chances are we’ll hear little about how governments have forced them to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. That’s because the cheats and their advisors have mastered the art of corporate disguise, […]
Commercial reality alive and well in transfer pricing world
The Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) has snafued the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) attempt to upend transfer pricing arrangements between Cameco Corporation and its Swiss subsidiary – in what amounted to a no-holds barred attack on the commercial realities facing multinational companies. In the CRA’s view of the world, respect for contracts and the separate […]
Courts mature in their approach to GAAR
September 28, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Canada v. Bank of Montreal (BMO) may represent a third-generation evolution of general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) caselaw. “Initially, in cases like Canada v. Canadian Pacific Ltd., the courts were not really comfortable with the GAAR concept and uncertain how far it […]
Beware the pitfalls of employees working remotely from abroad
September 21, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer There’s a new twist on the expatriate employee: one who wants to or has to move abroad, to a place where the employer has little if any presence – – – but is willing to do the job remotely. There’s also a variation on the theme. It comes […]
Artists desperate for legal help during COVID
September 21, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer New research confirms that a multitude of legal challenges, aggravated by the “devastating” impact of COVID-19. faces the Canadian arts sector. “We wanted to prove to arts funders, like Canada Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA), that there existed very pressing legal needs,” says Martha […]
UK court resolves COVID business interruption uncertainty
September 15, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer A UK High Court decision has relieved uncertainties about insurance coverage for COVID-19 losses. The decision is not binding on Canadian courts. But it may provide considerable guidance here, where the situation has been no less uncertain. That’s because the court reviewed 21 different types of wording in […]
Canada’s privacy regime is a mess
September 11, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer There’s a shroud hanging over the $9 million fine that the Competition Bureau imposed on Facebook in May. Facebook consented to the administrative monetary penalty, the largest privacy noncompliance fine imposed in Canada. Some observers tout it as a landmark conclusion to the Bureau’s two-year long investigation into […]
Pandemic data hubs and contractual, regulatory and ethical risks
Monday, May 11, 2020 One thing that hasn’t suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic is the big data analytics market — a development, however, that comes with a host of intellectual property (IP) and other legal issues. “The pandemic has accelerated the development of worldwide data hubs to collect data, and the development of software tools […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: Cleaner than cash
Friday, April 24, 2020 Unlike cash, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), or national cryptocurrencies, are an excellent fit in a world where social distancing is the norm and disease outbreak prevention has moved to the forefront of societal concerns. “Because national cryptocurrencies are defined as legal tender from the get-go, there are no issues about […]