Qatar’s Council of Ministers has approved amendments to the decision on reducing the number of private and public sector employees working in their workplaces. Under the amendment, up to 80% of employees, depending on their employer’s needs can return to their workplaces. The other 20% should continue working from home. The change applies from 28 July.
The Omani Court of Appeal has sentenced a public employee to 10 years in jail after convicting him of embezzling 1.2 million Omani riyals and of money laundering. The defendant was convicted of embezzlement and money laundering in two separate cases. In the first, he was given a five-year jail term and fined 1.2 million Riyals. In the second, the court sentenced the convicted employee to another five years in jail for money laundering and a fine of 50,000 Omani riyals. The court also ordered the dismissal of the convicted employee from his post and he has been banned from taking on public posts forever. The seizure of his funds has also been ordered.
In line with the ‘Go Safe’ certification programme spearheaded by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), regular Covid-19 testing has been made mandatory for all tourism sector staff. DCT Abu Dhabi inspectors have checked 165 hotels and 450 restaurants and conducted over 700 inspections over a one month period
Dubai, UAE, 29 July 2020 – LexisNexis MENA and the DIFC Academy are strengthening their strategic partnership with two new initiatives: “The Annual Technology Adoption Index” and “The Legal Tech Glossary.”
These projects follow five years of fruitful collaboration, including the publication of the official DIFC Law Commentaries and Law Reports book collections. Through a joint training programme, LexisNexis MENA and the DIFC Academy have co-hosted hundreds of courses and trained thousands of legal practitioners in all areas of law.
Annual Index: The first edition of the Annual Index of Technology Adoption in Dubai’s Legal Industry will be published in October 2020. The index will measure the implementation of legal technology within law firms and in-house legal teams, and will be updated annually.
The Legal Tech Glossary: In order to increase awareness of the impact of machine learning, smart contracts, and technology tools on the practice of law in Dubai, key terms and concepts will be defined and made accessible.
Alya Al Zarouni, Executive Vice President of Operations and Head of DIFC Academy, DIFC Authority said: “During the last five years, DIFC Academy and LexisNexis have collaborated on projects which support the continued professional development for legal practitioners within and outside the Centre. It is more important than ever to prioritise technology and innovation in order to effectively increase financial and legal sector diversification and contribute to a competitive knowledge-based economy. We look forward to working in closer co-operation with LexisNexis to drive the legal sector adoption of technology and innovation.”
“We are very proud to have built the largest legal and tax information platform in the region. The Lexis(r) Middle East solution has revolutionized access to the law for all practitioners. LexisNexis is also a major global player in LegalTech and we believe that artificial intelligence will continue to have a big impact on the practice of law in the years ahead. Our strengthened partnership with the DIFC Academy will enable us to better understand local market trends and facilitate access to knowledge for the entire legal community in Dubai. It is an honour for us to have the confidence of a prestigious and influential player such as the DIFC Academy,” said Guillaume Deroubaix, Managing Director of LexisNexis Middle East and North Africa.
The objective of the partnership is to strengthen the services and the sharing of knowledge offered to the legal community in Dubai in the next few years in order to bring it to the level of excellence that Dubai’s standards require.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that helps customers increase productivity, improve decision-making and outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world.
The company combines information and analytics to help lawyers manage their work more efficiently, serve their clients better and grow their practices and assists corporations in better understanding their markets.
LexisNexis is a part of RELX Group, serving customers in more than 130 countries with 10,000 employees worldwide. The company’s information network contains 3 petabytes of legal and news data with 65 billion documents.
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Egypt’s President has approved the Personal Data Protection Law. Egypt Law No. 151/2020 will promote the security of personal data, which is being processed and stored online. It also sets a legal framework to regulate data transmission with other countries. The draft law was approved by the country’s House of Representatives in February. It prohibits the collecting of or processing individuals’ data or spreading them without the permission of the relevant individuals, except in specific cases. It will apply to Egyptians in the country and expatriates. It will be also enforced on non-Egyptians in and outside Egypt as long as the data belong to Egyptian citizens or foreigners staying inside Egypt. Those who violate the Law will be jailed for up to one year and fined between 100,000 and one million Egyptian Pounds.
A Personal Data Protection Centre will be established and will be responsible for protecting personal data and regulating its availability and processing. A Controller or processor of data will have to inform the Centre of any personal data protection breaches within 72 hours of identifying it. Where the breach affects national security, data controllers and processors must notify the Centre within 24 hours and national security authorities.
They will also be responsible for developing strategic plans, policies and programmes to protect personal data and will have to work with all the relevant Government and non-Government bodies to execute protection measures.
It will consist of representatives from the Justice and Foreign Affairs Ministries, the General Intelligence Service and the Administrative Control Authority. It will have three members who will be chosen by the relevant Minister. In terms of cross-border personal data protection, it is prohibited to carry out transfers, storage, or sharing of personal data which was collected or prepared for processing to a foreign country unless there is a level of protection which is line with the requirements of the law and it will have to be licensed or authorised by the Personal Data Protection Centre.
Kuwait’s Commerce and Industry Ministry is considering issuing e-trade licenses. The license would allow those who have it to sell or promote products or auction watches, jewellery, gems or cars, among other things online. The e-trade license would be similar to normal licenses. They will be able to be issued to one person and they do not need to have a premises. The aim is to tackle money laundering online.
Following directives from Bahrain’s Government Executive Committee, the President of the Sustainable Energy Authority has announced the first Renewable Energy Certificate has been issued. The aim is to enhance the use of renewable energy in the Kingdom and it has been issued as part of the phased implementation of the renewable energy certification programme. The programme will use Blockchain solutions to ensure transparency and enable the tracking and verification of every certificate issued to each system registered in the programme to prevent electronic breaches. It will allow producers to directly record the productivity of the renewable energy systems they own on the platform so the Authority can verify the amount of energy produced and approve it through a Renewable Energy Certificate. The Certificate will be issued electronically for every 1 megawatt hour produced and approved by the Authority. Producers of renewable energy will also be able to offer renewable energy certificates for sale to those looking to invest in renewable energy and benefit from certificates to overcome the challenges preventing them from producing renewable energy themselves. It will enable investors and financing institutions to evaluate investment opportunities, finance sustainable energy projects and verify energy output produced through reliable and approved programmes and tools.
The Abu Dhabi Global Market Board have issued the Commercial Licensing Regulations 2015 (Exemptions) Order 2020. The Order grants an exemption from commercial licensing for certain classes of entities which are licensed in the UAE, outside the Global Market. The exemption applies in particular to temporary service providers in transportation like scooter rentals, delivery services and pick up or drop off services.
Qatar’s Council of Ministers has approved a draft law to amend Qatar Decision No. 70/2006 on commercial shops in residential areas. It was proposed by the country’s Trade and Industry Minister. The Council also considered a report from the committee for regulating the ownership of properties by non-Qatari nationals. The committee is responsible for suggesting areas where non-Qatari nationals can own property and the rules and conditions for their ownership.
The General Director for Systems and Companies Policies in Saudi Arabia’s Trade Ministry has announced the new companies law will allow new types of companies to be established. This will include simple joint stock companies who will have the characteristics of a joint stock company but will have flexibility in capital formation and issuing new types of shares. There will be also other types of companies. This will include two parties where one is a joint partner who will be personally responsible for their money and another who is a shareholder.
