• October 10, 2024
• Fanouria Papantonaki

The recent Law 5016/2023 on International Commercial Arbitration in Greece is a reality, effective from 1^st of May 2023. It is a law with a civil procedure law approach. This law attempts to modernise the regulations for international commercial arbitration and to harmonise the provisions of national law with the Model Law of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), as updated in 2006. Bylaw 5016/2023 repeals Law 2735/1999, while it is worth mentioning that for reasons of legal certainty the provisions on internal arbitration of the Greek CCC and international arbitration were not unified.

• January 15, 2025
• Stephanos Ayiomamitis

The Republic of Cyprus has recently enacted amendments to its Companies Law CAP 113 (the “Companies Law”) through the enactment of the Amendment No. 5 of 2024. This aligns national legislation with EU Directive 2021/2101/EC, which requires public disclosure of income tax information by certain entities. These changes aim to enhance corporate transparency and accountability by providing public access to data on multinational enterprises’ tax practices. The amendment’s provisions are applicable to financial years commencing on or after June 22, 2024. This timeline allows businesses sufficient opportunity to adapt their reporting processes to meet the new obligations effectively.

This year, Forbes reported a rise in legal pre-paid hours in the U.S., and the trend is slowly catching up in Europe too. Here in Malta, we offer our ‘legal toolkit’ to customers who want to pre-pay for our legal and corporate services to set up a new company or to maintain their existing one. But what exactly are pre-paid legal hours, and why would your business need them?

Technology and innovation are the future and the Republic of Cyprus has been taking positive steps to ensure that it will be at the forefront in these areas. In line with the need to advance innovative minds and radical technological developments, in 2016 the Republic of Cyprus implemented a competitive IP Regime offering tax exceptions to income from Intellectual Property (“IP”).

The Cyprus IP Regime has been reviewed by the EU Code of Conduct and has been assessed as fully compatible with EU standards.

1. Introduction

The authorization and operation of an investment firm in Cyprus is regulated under the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017 as amended (“Law”).

The Law applies to investment firms, market operators and third-country firms providing investment services or performing investment activities through the establishment of a branch in the Republic of Cyprus.

The Law constitutes the national transposition of the Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU (“MIFID II”).