Ideas for Europe-wide legislation on class-action litigation—or rather its half-brother “collective consumer redress” actions—are suddenly up for discussion at European Union headquarters in Brussels. Under the general objective to give much-needed teeth to consumer enforcement mechanisms in Europe, the legal rights of shareholders receive some attention, but not top priority. Collective onsumer redress legislative packages […]
Jeremy Woolfe
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Siemens Sparks Tough Anti-Bribery Talk; Action Unclear
Suddenly, it seems that bribery is not the business practice it used to be in Europe. Credit the scandal of Siemens AG, the German manufacturing giant whose image has been tarred by possible bribery in its telecommunications department. The drumbeat of bad news around Siemens—which first erupted in November, with police raids and the arrest […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
A Chat On Financial Reforms With EU’s McCreevy
Compliance Week regularly publishes conversations with governance leaders. Here, we talk to Charlie McCreevy, who as European Commissioner for Internal Market, is playing a leading role in implementing the bloc’s policy to merge multifarious national regulations on financial services into a working harmony. An index of previous conversations is available via the U.S. edition of […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
EU Calls For Input On Auditor Liability Caps
The European Commission is calling on the business community and national regulators to establish a uniform standard of capping auditing firms’ legal liability for their work, a tacit admission that the accounting industry in Europe is stretched too thin to endure any disruption to the Big 4 auditors. Hoping to bring order to the mixed […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
New Corporate Law Heralds New Era In U.K.
Sweeping changes to corporate law are going into effect in the United Kingdom this month, as the country implements an overhaul of the British Companies Act—the largest piece of legislation ever passed by Parliament—that will address everything from audits to investigations to economic development. The law, which received final approval in November, is intended to […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Europe Focuses On ‘One Share, One Vote’
The European Union is preparing for an examination of the “one share, one vote” principle—an idea not exactly sacrosanct in some European countries, and one already raising the ire of some companies fearful that good governance might clash with protectionist interests. Corporate boards in the EU employ a wide range of poison pills and similar […]
Posted inData Privacy
The Conflicting State Of Data Privacy In EU
Compliance with data-privacy rules is vexing enough for companies in the United States, with a myriad of rules and jurisdictions, imprecise definitions, and nightmarish bad publicity when things go awry. The novice might guess that compliance in the European Union is even more difficult, with Europe’s added layers of bureaucracy and different cultural norms. Unfortunately, […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
EU’s Securities-Sales Directive Gets Under Sail
The clock is now ticking in the European Union toward a sweeping overhaul of its financial-services industry, which should create one giant, unified market for the sale of financial securities by the end of next year. Formally called the Market in Financial Instruments Directive but abbreviated everywhere as “MiFID,” the rule has been pushed by […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Talking Convergence With IASB Ops Director
In the latest of our conversations with governance leaders and regulators, we talk to Tom Seidenstein, director of operations at the International Accounting Standards Committee and point-man on global convergence of accounting rules. An index of previous conversations is available here. So far IASB has persuaded at least 100 nations to commit to International Financial […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
EU Gives Small Co. Accounting An Overhaul
A logjam of opaque financial reporting structures has long dammed up economic growth among the European Union’s vast realm of small businesses, family-owned or otherwise. Now, new legislation intends to overhaul reporting rules, drive down the cost of capital, and galvanize the small- and medium-sized business sector there. As in the United States, SMBs are […]