Search Results for: Italian

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ACCOUNTING firms working in the banking, insurance and securities sectors have been asked how European Union (EU) rules controlling mergers and acquisitions in these financial industries might be improved. The European Commission says national regulators have inconsistently implemented a rule allowing them to block takeovers and alliances if they consider a target company’s "sound and prudential management" at risk.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

REGIONAL VAT-like taxes that levy revenue from added value created by companies in specific production stages are illegal under the European Union’s (EU) sixth directive, says a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general. Christine Stix-Hackl, brushed aside claims that the Italian regional IRAP tax was so different from VAT, it was not covered by the directive’s rules, for instance that taxation liability can be passed onto the consumer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD’S multilateral food trading system today stands at a crossroads: faced with the suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round, it can either retreat to protectionism, leavened by a series of competitive bilateral trade deals, or it can grasp the nettle of liberal free trade, slash subsidies and tariffs, and then watch the economic rewards roll in.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROBAROMETER FOOD POLL

WHEN EU consumers think of food, more associate it with "taste" – 31%, than with "pleasure" – 29%, "hunger" – 27%, "health" – 19% and "necessity" – 15%, said a new opinion poll from EU survey organisation Eurobarometer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A RESEARCH and development consortium supported by the European Union (EU) is preparing to commercially launch a microwave sensor that can detect faults in moulded polyurethane before it hardens into heels and outer soles. The Microshoe project aimed to reduce defective parts, which can account for 20% of polyurethane created by shoe manufacturers, increasing costs markedly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ACCOUNTING clients working for public sector organisations within the European Union (EU) can legitimately have their contracts blocked if they are behind in tax or social security payments, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. In an Italian case, which as usual will be a precedent across the EU, judges ruled such national or local government bans complied with the European public services directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A LEGAL case over the trademark rights to the word ‘Stilton’ could return to the courts, after the European Court of Justice rejected a potential settlement. Its Court of First Instance ruled as not binding a letter from Italian Elisabetta Dami that she was minded not to use the proposed trademark ‘Geronimo Stilton’ to market cheese.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

COMAPANIES working for public sector organisations within the European Union (EU) can legitimately have contracts denied or blocked if they are behind in tax or social security payments, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. In an Italian case – a precedent across the EU – judges ruled such national or local government bans complied with the European public services directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A LONG-RUNNING legal case over the trademark rights to the word ‘Stilton’ could return to the courts, after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected a potential settlement. Its Court of First Instance has ruled a letter from Italian Elisabetta Dami that she was minded not to use the proposed trademark ‘Geronimo Stilton’ to market cheese – in the teeth of opposition from Britain’s Stilton Cheese Makers Association – was not binding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEVIS may have won a partial victory at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over a bid to protect as a trademark ‘gull’ shape stitching on its rear jeans pockets. ECJ advocate general Dámaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colome has advised that national judges should allow such protection if they find consumers associated a clothing design with a particular brand.…