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Mar 06, 2020
A case involving five major banks alleged to have rigged the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange (‘forex’ or ‘FX’) market, following the financial crisis of 2008, received its first hearing at the United Kingdom Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) at the end of 2019.
The Business Crime Committee provides a forum for members to discuss, address, and advocate on emerging white-collar crime issues. The Committee’s goal is to promote awareness of the growing significance of novel tactics. Recent focuses include international cooperation in criminal matters, money laundering, cybercrime, internal investigations, and legal frameworks against bribery and corruption in global transactions. Membership benefits include opportunities to publish articles and content, attending educational conferences and networking with business crime lawyers and opportunities for sourcing referrals to experts in foreign jurisdictions and attorneys.
Dec 03, 2025
This article examines the regulatory landscape surrounding the advertising and promotion of prescription-only medicines on social media, with a particular focus on Ireland and on GLP-1s. It explores digital promotion and regulatory frameworks, highlighting the role of the key Irish stakeholders in monitoring and enforcing advertising compliance. It discusses recent trends in the online promotion of GLP-1s, content creators and recent steps taken by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in this space. It also considers the implications of recent enforcement actions and the importance of robust internal policies (including for employees) to ensure compliance in the digital age.
The Power Law Committee provides a forum for energy lawyers from diverse legal backgrounds to interact, share ideas, new trends, and foster collegiality.
We explore different topics: international ownership, mitigating climate change, energy transition, regulatory methodologies, power purchase arrangements, transmission siting, access and pricing, engineering procurement and construction, operation and maintenance, reliability standards and compliance, fuel procurement and hedging arrangements, new technologies, among others.
We aim to provide our members with practical and useful advice to better serve clients, and to offer the opportunity for collaboration, networking and friendships.
Dec 03, 2025
This article analyses the Argentine legal framework applicable to the advertising and labelling of medicines and medical devices, particularly in the context of social media and digital platforms. It also explores the main compliance challenges, enforcement trends and recommendations for companies seeking to promote health-related products online.
Criminal offences are increasingly being included in financial regulatory statutes and dozens of new legislations. These include initiatives covering privacy, data protection, competition law, intellectual property, food safety, foreign exchange regulation, tax, securities, insolvency and almost everything else from airports to zoos.
The incursion of criminal law into regulatory regimes underscores the state’s inability to achieve compliance with the rule of law without stiff penalties. This panel will explore the above issues, and whether basic rights are compromised. Are these useful to discourage the commission of an offence by fugitive offenders, non-resident and untethered entities? Or do these laws serve to harass undertrials and innocent individuals?
Fourth IBA India Litigation and ADR Symposium
Mar 27, 2017
Podcast - Trump White House contact with Justice Department breaches ethical rules
‘Russiagate’ – the alleged ties between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign – has prompted growing scrutiny of improper political influence in the United States justice system.
In this session, panel members will share their experiences of managing and litigating cross-border disputes, and will discuss fraud, corruption and white-collar crime. The panel members will explore:
• how to identify appropriate counsel in different jurisdictions:
• how to ensure a harmonious litigation strategy; and
• how to combat a minefield of different related disputes, including addressing jurisdictional issues, securing worldwide Mareva injunctions, tracing orders, seeking or opposing extradition requests, expropriation of assets or investments, as well as commencing related or secondary litigation claims or investment treaty claims.
Litigating in the Asia Pacific Region
IBA webcast interview with Hugh Verrier
Criminal offences are increasingly being included in financial
regulatory statutes and dozens of new legislations. These include
initiatives covering privacy, data protection, competition law,
intellectual property, food safety, foreign exchange regulation,
tax, securities, insolvency and almost everything else from airports
to zoos. The incursion of criminal law into regulatory regimes
underscores the state’s inability to achieve compliance with the
rule of law without stiff penalties.
This panel will discuss the above issues from an international
perspective, exploring inter alia the cross-border application of law,
fugitives and multi-jurisdictional enforcement problems not only
to trace the offender but also to discourage the commission of an
offence by non-resident and untethered entities.
Third IBA India Litigation and ADR Symposium 2024: From fringe to focal: India at the centre of international dispute resolution
Aug 04, 2025
In May 2025, the UK government unveiled its long-anticipated White Paper, setting out a roadmap intended to restore control over immigration. The paper’s controversial tone alleged that inward migration had ‘exploded’ and attributed the pressure on public services and housing access to the UK having become a ‘one-nation experiment in open borders’. With overarching themes of control, contribution and community cohesion, the proposals signal a decisive shift in direction.
Criminal offences are increasingly being included in financial regulatory statutes and dozens of new legislations. These include initiatives covering privacy, data protection, competition law, intellectual property, food safety, foreign exchange regulation, tax, securities, insolvency and almost everything else from airports to zoos.
The incursion of criminal law into regulatory regimes underscores the state’s inability to achieve compliance with the rule of law without stiff penalties. This panel will discuss the above issues from an international perspective, exploring inter alia the crossborder application of law, fugitives and multi-jurisdictional enforcement problems not only to trace the offender but also to discourage the commission of an offence by non-resident and untethered entities.
A webinar presented by the IBA Antitrust Section
The session will focus on recent developments in the South African, Nigerian and Kenya regimes and will also discuss recent approaches to price gouging.
Competition Law in Africa Conference: regulatory developments and enforcement trends across the continent
Apr 12, 2024
On 21 February, the European Commission published a White Paper on ‘How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs?’ in view of the technological, economic and geopolitical challenges facing the EU in the digital decade. This White Paper identifies key trends and challenges in the digital infrastructure sector and discusses possible scenarios for public policy actions, such as a possible future Digital Networks Act, which aims to incentivise the building of the digital networks of the future, master the transition to new technologies and business models, meet the future connectivity needs of all end-users, underpin the competitiveness of our economy, and ensure secure and resilient infrastructures as well as the EU’s economic security. The White Paper proposes three main pillars of action: creating the 3C Network – ‘Connected Collaborative Computing’; completing the Digital Single Market; and ensuring secure and resilient digital infrastructures for Europe. It launches a broad consultation of stakeholders and invites comments until 30 June 2024. This article provides a summary of the White Paper.
Building off of the IP discussions on Day 1, our panel will take a deeper dive into transfer pricing developments around the world, including changes to laws in particular jurisdictions, significant transfer pricing cases, examination trends, dispute resolution tools, and planning approaches. We will focus in particular on:
- Transfer pricing and the interaction with anti-avoidance rules and recharacterisation
- Obtaining certainty through MAPs and APAs for transfer pricing and ancillary issues
- Developments on financing transactions, including guarantees
- How tax authorities are applying DEMPE today
- The interaction of transfer pricing and tariffs
Reporter
Miguel Pimentel Garrigues, Lisbon
15th Annual London Finance and Capital Markets Tax Conference
Apr 13, 2025
Historically, multinational companies have made operational decisions based primarily on strategic and commercial objectives, with tax professionals later reviewing and refining the resulting structures to ensure tax efficiency. But as major economies, including the US, introduce tariffs and other trade measures, transfer pricing is taking on a more prominent role in shaping business decisions. Although it may not be the central factor, it is becoming an influential consideration in corporate strategy, particularly in regard to a shifting geopolitical landscape.
- current transfer pricing audit trends – practical experience in dispute resolution
- how new local, EU and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) transfer pricing rules may affect the resolution of transfer pricing disputes;
- assertions of embedded royalties by tax authorities;
- increasing challenges to intercompany financing transactions in the US and Europe;
- managing transfer pricing issues in a remote-working world; and
- how Loper Bright and other court cases may affect transfer pricing rules.
14th Annual London Finance and Capital Markets Conference
Aug 11, 2023
The disruption caused globally by the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, which started on 24 February 2022, was acutely felt on various economic fronts. One of the most visible impacts – the humanitarian crisis aside – concerned the energy markets.
Pricing legal services – is anybody doing it properly?
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, several draft bills were submitted to the Brazilian congress, state legislatures and city councils in connection with price controls, price freezes and mandatory discounts for goods and services considered essential, such as medicines, hand sanitiser and personal protection equipment, liquid petroleum gas, schools and individual urban transportation platforms.
Troubled times can spell increased obstacles to finding an agreement on price. This panel will first focus on some of the tools that can help to bridge the gap between a buyer and seller’s expectations and needs on price, while acknowledging that these solutions can raise their own challenges. For example, as one court noted, an ‘earn-out provision converts today’s disagreement over price into tomorrow’s litigation over the outcome’.
11th IBA European Corporate and Private M&A Conference
Jul 11, 2025
This panel at the 14th Annual IBA Finance & Capital Markets Tax Conference discussed various topics related to transfer pricing audits and dispute resolution. The speakers elaborated on domestic case law and highlighted the recent trends in transfer pricing audits, including challenges in intra-group financing transactions, as well as assertions on embedded royalties by the respective tax authorities.
- APA practice trends and experience – increased demand for certainty
- COVID & extraordinary events: Practical applications of methods to reflect impact of COVID, sanctions, etc.
- Tax rulings issued by 2 or more countries in a single procedure (ICAP of OECD and ETAX of EU)
- Transfer of functions across borders where employees move
- Intercompany financing: dissecting the findings in HMRC v. Blackrock and Singtel (Federal Court of Australia) cases)
- Data collection and sale by related companies
12th Annual London Finance and Capital Markets Conference
Jul 22, 2025
On 21 May 2025, Milan became the focal point for the European venture capital community as Portolano Cavallo, led by Antonia Verna, hosted a landmark seminar dedicated to the presentation of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Lean Documents Project and its accompanying White Paper. This article provides a summary of the seminar.
Challenges for corporate tax counsel: guiding the company through global developments
Sep 29, 2025
Harassment, intimidation and undue interference have become part of the job for lawyers defending the rights of communities facing environmental harms. Global Insight looks at how they’re fighting back.
The panel will deal with the various criteria to determine the price per share to be offered at a voluntary tender offer aimed at the delisting of a public company. The discussions will focus on the most critical aspects of the relevant procedures, including the requirements to challenge the price proposed by the offeror in each jurisdiction, the possibility of competing offers with different prices in cash or securities and related securities laws’ implications.
40th IBA International Financial Law Conference
Mar 01, 2023
The topics covered in this session included: advance pricing agreements and mutual agreement procedure practice trends and experience; Covid-19 and extraordinary events; transfer of functions across borders; the International Compliance Assurance Programme, the European Trust and Cooperation Approach and tax rulings; intercompany financing: the HMRC v Blackrock and HMRC v Singtel cases; and data collection and sale by related companies.
Algorithmic pricing and competition law
Jun 11, 2024
Transfer pricing, in very basic terms, refers to stock transfers between multinational companies or enterprises. But as easy as it sounds, it is also complex.
Pricing mechanisms are among the most heavily negotiated provisions in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, often including significant involvement by various non-lawyers, including clients, financial advisors and accountants. Understanding the nuances of different price provisions and their implications is essential for deal lawyers. This panel will focus on the intricacies of negotiating price provisions, offering a comprehensive look at the strategies and considerations involved – including a discussion of key concepts (including locked boxes versus price adjustments), finding value in unexpected terms and a mock negotiation.
13th IBA European Corporate and Private M&A Conference
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, markets have seen the panic buying of anti-epidemic products such as masks, disinfectants, disinfecting wipes and medical alcohol. The behaviour of merchants, marking up prices to make huge profits, has aroused wide concern from all walks of life.
This session will explore which law firm strategies ignore profit and pricing.
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
Aug 26, 2024
The panel discussed the role of transfer pricing (TP) in the post-Pillar Two tax world, focusing in particular on the potential impact of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Pillar Two rules on TP (section 1); recent developments at European Union level involving the proposed EU Directive on Transfer Pricing (commonly known as the ‘TP Directive’), recent intellectual property fact patterns (section 3) and the current trends in intercompany financing (section 4).
It is consensus that one of the most difficult subjects regarding damage compensation is establishing the amount due in cases of moral, existential or spiritual suffering imposed by unlawful actions. It is even more challenging when the victims do not have the same cultural background of judges and lawyers, like in cases of harm caused to indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities or isolated communities. This session will dive into this topic to investigate if it is possible to think in criteria or methods to quantify compensation due in such cases.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
May 05, 2022
This session, at the Annual IBA Finance and Capital Markets Tax Conference, discussed transfer pricing, specifically anticipating and responding to new challenges. Among other topics, the key trends in transfer pricing litigation, developments in applying transfer pricing rules, audits, mutual agreement procedures and advance pricing agreements were discussed.
For many lawyers, the International Criminal Police Organisation or INTERPOL, is a mystery, impacting a broad array of legal matters and clients. This panel will provide much needed guidance on the organisation, structure, and functioning of INTERPOL. Through case studies and discussion of best practices, lawyers will learn how to best advocate for victims of INTERPOL abuse.
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
In the last week of June 2019, a copy of a ground-breaking court ruling emerged on social media in China: the order by the Supreme People's Court in the case between Yutai Technology Feed and the Hainan Price Bureau. The order provides a direct answer to the question of whether or not the Chinese antitrust authorities bear the burden of proving the anti-competitive effects of companies' resale price maintenance conduct. China's highest court found that they do not.
Tax authorities around the world are applying more resources in their assessment of a MNE’s transfer pricing practices and policies, often leading to costly and time-consuming challenges, disputes and controversy.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Mar 13, 2026
Earn-outs and deferred consideration are widely used mechanisms to bridge valuation gaps in M&A transactions, but they often give rise to disputes if not carefully structured. This article examines the practical, legal and behavioural risks associated with earn-outs; it also explains how precise drafting and balanced incentives can help align buyer and seller expectations post-closing.
This session will provide tips on how to ensure that you are working smarter from a pricing perspective.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Aug 19, 2024
The maritime transportation of Russian oil has become a massive hurdle for traders and their service providers due to the sanctions and reputational risks, as well as for the global community due to environmental hazards. This article is about the Russian oil Price Cap, the ‘shadow-fleet’ and their impact on the environment globally. The article starts with the hypotheticals and the relevant questions, followed by briefly describing the Price Cap regulation and its enforcement policy, and concluding by answering those questions raised first in relation to the hypotheticals.
- Dealing with OECD base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project’s ‘Amount B’
- Transfer pricing dispute resolution developments
- Changes in OECD, US, and other countries’ Administrative Procedure Act (APA) procedures and guidance
- New EU transfer pricing directive
- Potential implications from the Moore case
- Use of AI and data analytics in transfer pricing enforcement
13th Annual London Finance and Capital Markets Conference
Oct 25, 2022
In Europe, although the block exemption for vertical agreements may enable franchisors to protect their legitimate interests, fixing resale prices is usually considered as a ‘no go’ zone. A recent case in China demonstrates a similar administrative approach towards the issue in the context of franchising.
Oct 14, 2024
Two companies – George Weston and Loblaw – have agreed a $363m settlement, one of the largest antitrust deals in Canadian history.
This session will take a critical look at fixed-price EPC as a viable method of procurement in the current world market.
IBA Annual Conference Paris 2023
Jun 02, 2025
This article analyses the current regulatory trends in Argentina concerning drug pricing and market access. Based on the complex structure of the Argentine healthcare system, the strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies and healthcare payers, the existing legal frameworks and the role of institutions, such as CONETEC and CATPROS, are discussed. The article also highlights the recent initiative to create a new national health technology assessment agency (ANEFiTS), which could redefine the rules governing access, coverage and pricing in the country.
As a consequence of the war in Ukraine, political tensions and conflicts around the world, higher interest rates, dislocations in the markets and the general economic downturn, litigation has again become more prevalent following the closing of M&A deals. This session will discuss the most common post-closing litigation issues and how to professionally handle them, in both insured and uninsured deals.
12th IBA European Corporate and Private M&A Conference
Aug 26, 2024
This conference panel explored multijurisdictional trends, including the frequency of multijurisdictional audits, the use of a mutual agreement procedure, advance pricing agreement trends, the use of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Compliance Assurance Programme and developments related to information sharing.
The session will explore the challenges faced by farmers, food businesses, consumers, and environmental institutions and entities when dealing with the global tensions that concern the production and supply of food commodities and products, in relation with farming costs and financing. The panellists will discuss about the strategic and legal solutions to be adopted in order to prevent present and future stress conditions from happening throughout the healthy and less-healthy areas of the world.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
This paper addresses some of the key economic considerations that are important in the consideration of excessive pricing cases, in particular within the context of a national disaster such as the Covid-19 pandemic. It focuses on the economic rationale for two key elements of an excessive pricing test: (1) the existence of a dominant position; and (2) a benchmark of reasonably effective competition.
In a world in which the exchange of services and of intangible goods is of ever greater relevance, certainty about applying acceptable transfer prices for all countries involved has become increasingly important. If transfer prices are not accepted by any one country, fast and efficient ways to resolve disputes either among the authorities themselves or with the help of a third party or a court are key for legal certainty and, as a result, for keeping the economy running smoothly. This panel will discuss the implications of recent court decisions and explore all three stages outlined in the title: (a) finding the right transfer price, (b) steering through procedures between countries, and (c) resolving disputes through arbitration.
IBA Annual Conference Miami 2022
Fast-developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have been attracting increasing attention in recent years. The use of pricing algorithms to facilitate collusion is one of the hottest topics in the area of antitrust. Is it a collusive agreement when competitors knowingly use the same AI technology to monitor and adjust prices? Even where the algorithm only recommends rather than determines prices and actual prices can differ?
28th Annual Competition Conference
Mar 27, 2023
This article comments on the ongoing reform of the Brazilian transfer pricing rules, briefly describing the ‘fixed margin methodology’ as it was originally provided by Law 9,430/96 and the challenges facing the country and the Brazilian tax administration regarding the replacement of the old rules with new ones that converge with the OECD transfer pricing framework, via the enactment of Provisional Measure (PM) No 1,152/22. The new rules, which if eventually approved in Congress are expected to enter into force in 2024 going forward, though companies may elect to apply them from 2023, abandon the free choice of traditional transfer pricing methods with predetermined margins, while migrating to the so-called ‘best method approach’ to determine the arm’s length parameters, taking into consideration the dealignment of the controlled transaction and the comparability analysis for transactions contracted with unrelated parties.
In the digital age, concerns around traditional pricing cartels are being reshaped by the rise of algorithmic pricing and automated information exchange.
29th Annual Competition Conference
The Spanish Constitutional Court has amended the wording of article 294 of the Judiciary Act, leading to a major change in the system of compensation for unjustified pre-trial detention. In the absence of a harmonised regulation on this matter, and in view of this change in the Spanish regulation, this article reflects on the compensation schemes in force in other EU Member States, taking into account the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
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