The Canadian government has proposed legislation to update and reinforce its national security review process under the Investment Canada Act (ICA). The proposed changes – contained in Bill C-34, National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act (Bill) – are the most significant since the ICA’s national security regime was introduced in 2009. Proposed New…
The Canadian government announced a new policy on October 28, 2022 (the Policy) under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) governing investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Canada’s critical minerals sector. The government followed the issuance of the Policy with an announcement on November 2, 2022, that it had ordered three Chinese investors to divest their…
Regulation 2019/452 (as amended, the FDI Regulation) inserted the European Commission (the Commission) into a hitherto jealously guarded area of EU Member State authority – screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) for threats to security and public order. The FDI Regulation sets out minimum requirements for Member States’ FDI screening regimes and a mechanism for…
With the much-debated reforms to Act 19/2003, of 4 July, on capital movements (“Act 19/2003”), the Spanish foreign direct investment (“FDI”) regime has been expanded over the past few years. However, FDI screening in relation to defense investments predates Act 19/2003 (and the recent FDI hype more broadly), and was regulated in Royal Decree 664/1999…
Background The recent proliferation of foreign direct investment regimes (“FDI”) in Europe baffles practitioners and deal makers alike. Why is my acquisition of, say, a developer of grapes in Spain potentially subject to CFIUS-like rules? Can my carefully crafted leveraged buyout of a niche Polish producer of NFTs derail out of national security concerns because…
On March 8, 2022, the government of Canada issued a policy statement regarding the review of Russian investments under the Investment Canada Act (ICA): https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ica-lic.nsf/eng/lk81228.html. The policy statement was issued in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which the government called “unprovoked and unjustifiable”, and affects the application of both the ICA’s “net benefit” review…
We are happy to announce the new International Law Talk Podcast episode on the interrelations between merger control, FDI, subsidy control & EU trade law. In the episode, I discuss with competition and trade experts and my former colleagues François-Charles Laprévote and Wanjie Lin from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. We focus on the…
Regulation 2019/452 (as amended, the FDI Regulation) inserted the European Commission (the Commission) into a hitherto jealously guarded area of EU Member State authority – screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) for threats to security and public order. The FDI Regulation set out minimum requirements for Member States’ FDI screening mechanisms and a mechanism for…
Background Another day, another ground-breaking change in Spain’s FDI rules. November 2021 has been an eventful month for FDI in Spain. The following two developments are likely to be consequential in the evolution of the country’s policy as regards foreign investments: (i) More than a year after the establishment of the Spanish 2020 FDI ex-ante…
On 10 September 2021, certain significant changes to Austria’s competition law entered into force, although some of the merger control related changes will apply only as of 1 January 2022: Merger control. The amendments include a revision of Austria’s revenue-based merger control threshold, the introduction of the significant lessening of competition test, and a broadening…
