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DSA now in force for largest platforms Today, 25 August 2023, the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) takes effect for very large online platforms and search engines – the so-called VLOPs and VLOSEs. These are the big tech players (i.e. those platforms and search engines with more than 45 million mon... Fixation with your BFF? Court of Appeal paves way for Bitcoin File Format copyright claim to proceed The Court of Appeal has allowed Dr Craig Wright to press on with his copyright infringement claim in respect of the Bitcoin File Format (the “BFF”). Reversing the High Court’s recent ruling, the court found that Dr Wright does in fact have a real prospect... FRAND decisions stack up as High Court rules in Optis v Apple Following hot on the heels of InterDigital v Lenovo (see here), the High Court has determined FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) terms for a licence of Standard Essential Patents (“SEPs”) for the third time. Adopting a “top down” approach, th... No joy for JTI: but whose purposes are unallowable? For UK tax practitioners who are feeling bereft after binge-watching the final season of Succession, the ongoing series of “unallowable purpose” cases offers plotlines that are, if admittedly less glossy, no less intriguing. The “unallowable purpose” rule... Criminalisation of tax issues in Europe In recent years, there has been a steep increase in criminal proceedings for tax matters in some European countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, with a potentially major impact on the way in which tax audits are managed as tax authorities m... Cyber lessons we can all learn from the ICO’s reprimand of BNT Given the number of cyber-attacks currently taking place, it’s always interesting to see what triggers a regulator to take action. The ICO’s recent reprimand to My Media World Ltd t/a Brand New Tube (‘BNT’) illustrates that a lack of regular pen testing, ... Purpose tests in anti-abuse or anti-avoidance provisions: perspectives across Europe In order to carry out a transaction, taxpayers are generally free to choose between different structures and tax regimes, and to choose the structure or regime which produces the lowest tax burden. But their freedom is constrained by anti-abuse rules or a... Purpose tests in anti-abuse or anti-avoidance provisions in Italy There are numerous specific anti-avoidance provisions (SAARs) and the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR), and the Italian tax authorities may recharacterize or disregard a transaction or series of transactions under the GAAR only if the tax benefits cannot be... Purpose tests in anti-abuse or anti-avoidance provisions in France There are multiple purpose tests across different parts of the French corporate income tax legislation pursuant to which the French tax authority can challenge, recharacterise or disregard transactions or series of transactions. These range from general a... Purpose tests in anti-abuse or anti-avoidance provisions in the Netherlands Within the Netherlands, there are various anti-abuse or anti-avoidance rules containing purpose tests. Most relevant within the context of dividend distributions seem to be the statutory general anti-abuse rule (GAAR) in the Dutch Dividend Withholding Tax...