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 […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: The courts struggle
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Cryptocurrency remains, in many ways, a novel asset class. No surprise, then, that courts in many jurisdictions are still trying to figure out how their law applies to the phenomenon. “The overarching theme is whether cryptocurrency is property or not, and the answer depends on the cryptocurrency’s architecture,” said John Kim, […]
Regulating cryptocurrency exchanges: Unclear definitions
Tuesday, March 03, 2020 In this, the first of our three-part series examining legal developments in the cryptocurrency arena, we take a look at the state of cryptocurrency regulation in Canada and elsewhere. “The uncertainty about whether cryptocurrencies should be regulated as currency, commodities or securities continues both globally and especially in Canada,” said Lori […]
Rectification is not a ‘mulligan’ that can get companies out of taxation sand traps, Supreme Court says.
January 10, 2017 The Supreme Court of Canada is clamping down on the use of a legal tool that has allowed some taxpayers to lower their tax bills. In two separate decisions, one involving Fairmont Hotels and the other Jean Coutu, the Supreme Court has restricted access to a legal remedy called “rectification” to prevent […]
Efforts to cool hot housing markets target ‘foreigners’ instead of speculators
Thursday, June 22, 2017 In an era where anti-immigration policies are picking up steam, “foreign” is a dangerous word. And therein lies the problems with the Ontario and British Columbia measures that impose additional taxes on non-residents buying residential property in the Toronto and Vancouver regions. Notice that, on a quick reading, it appears that […]
Daimler’s innovative blockchain bond issue good and bad news for lawyers
Friday, September 01, 2017 Kiss the trusted adviser goodbye: that, it appears, is the message for the profession from Daimler AG’s recent US$115 million bond issue, all of which was done digitally using blockchain technology. We’re talking everything: from the organization, distribution, allocation and execution of the loan agreement to the confirmation of repayments and […]
Competition Bureau’s approach to antitrust law needs to catch up with the times
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 Even as Canada’s Competition Bureau heralds a focus on the digital economy as its number one priority for 2017-18, experts in the United States have questioned whether antitrust laws, such as the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914, can really do the job that’s required in the modern economy. The irony […]