Sources from the Saudi Arabian Housing Ministry have said it is likely the Ministry, through its electronic Ejaar rent system will start using unified contracts for the commercial sector by the last quarter of this year. The sources added the Ministry has referred the contract template to the Justice Ministry to consider before it is implemented.
Australia’s Federal Court rejected an appeal on 8 June 2018 against an issued but undisclosed tax assessment from the Australian Taxation Office for the 2011 income year.
The case revolved around whether or not an apartment in Bahrain was a permanent home for tax purposes on 8 June 2018 under the ‘domicile’ test.
The case involved a former aircraft engineer, Glenn Harding who lived in Bahrain for more than five years in the same block of fully-furnished apartments. He had appealed on the basis he was not a ‘resident’ in the 2011 income year, but the Federal Court rejected that partly because of the type of accommodation he lived in.
The ruling means renting out a fully-furnished apartment overseas may not be enough to convince the tax office an individual is a non-resident for tax purposes.
The final stage of the legislative process for the new UAE Arbitration law (Federal Law No. 6/2018 on Arbitration in Commercial Disputes) took place with the publication of the new law in Official Gazette issue No. 630 dated 15 May 2018. The new law comes into effect on 16 June 2018, one month from the day following its official publication.
The new Arbitration law is a welcome advance for arbitration in the UAE. It expressly repeals the former law governing arbitration in the UAE since 1992, contained in a short chapter of the Federal Civil Procedure Code (Federal Law No. 11/1992), replacing it with a modern law based on the internationally recognised and accepted UNCITRAL Model Law.
Article 59 of the new UAE Arbitration law provides for its immediate application to all existing arbitrations, notwithstanding that they were commenced prior to the law coming into effect. Importantly, the introduction of the new law will not invalidate any aspect of the proceedings that took place before it came into effect. Parties currently in arbitration will need to ensure that they are fully aware of all of the changes introduced by the new law. However, it is unclear how those who are contemplating challenging an award made against them prior to the law coming into effect will be impacted by the new law, and in particular the new 30 day time limit which will apply for raising a challenge to an award.
While significant positive change will be brought about by the introduction of this new law, some of the old uncertainties remain unaddressed and a few new ones will emerge. On balance, however, the impact of the new law is expected to be overwhelmingly positive for the legal community and the wider business community, both within the UAE and abroad.
To mark the announcement of the commencement of the new UAE Arbitration law, Bill Smith and Maria Mazzawi from Pinsent Masons prepared a comprehensive analysis of the new law, which explains which issues troubling arbitration in the past have been addressed by the new law, and which have not. We have also examined whether there might be any new uncertainties introduced by the new law.
The enactment of the new Arbitration law has been designed to attract further foreign direct investment into the UAE, and to firmly reinforce the UAE’s place as the most progressive market for doing business in the Middle East region. Its introduction provides an international framework, which is already familiar to the global business community, for the fair and efficient resolution of their commercial disputes.
Read full article here: www.pinsentmasons.com/Global/UAE_Arbitration_law_update.pdf
The Executive Regulations of the Universal Health Insurance Law, Egypt Law No 2/2018 (the Law) were issued by virtue of the Egypt Prime Minister Decree No 909/2018 on 8 May 2018 (the Regulations). The Regulations have mainly further elaborated on the role and mandates of the three authorities that will replace the General Authority for Health Insurance.
Click here to view the highlights of the most notable provisions: https://www.lexismiddleeast.com/doc/2661065_2661066
News developments
The European Parliament and Council passed a regulation (EU) 2016/679 to refresh the data and privacy protection laws for European Union States. The new regulation is commonly known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and came into effect on 25 May 2018. The GDPR has defined the rights of EU individuals relating to how their data is collected, stored, processed and used by organisations. Any organisation that handles the data of any EU citizen is bound by the provisions of the GDPR. This regulation is applicable globally and fines of up to 4% of worldwide turnover or 20 million euros (whichever is greater) will be levied on businesses breaching them. GCC organisations and businesses need to consider whether they collect, store, process or control any data for EU citizens and revise their own governance and enterprise risk management frameworks to comply with the GDPR provisions.
Read full article here.
In a bid to boost foreign investment, the Bahraini authorities have announced they are planning on issuing ten-year residency visas to foreign investors.
The visas will be renewable and will enable foreign investors to self-sponsor themselves. It follows an announcement by the UAE authorities that they were going to relax their investment rules and introduce a ten-year visa for investors and innovators as well as medical, scientific, research and technical professionals.
Newspaper: Al-Madina, 4 June 2018
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Food and Medicine has announced it has completed an e-medicine system to track medicine from production to customers.
The aim is to ensure medicines are readily available and are safe. The Authority has placed barcodes on packaging and created the necessary technical infrastructure to host the movement details of medicines. They are also working with relevant parties including factories, importers, storage units and distribution centres, hospitals and pharmacies to implement the system.
Newspaper: Gulf News, 1 June 2018
From 1 June 2018, those under 18 years will not be allowed to travel to the UAE without an authorisation letter from their parents if they are not travelling with their parents.
The authorisation form must be completed by the parents with relevant details of the child’s address overseas and in the UAE and information about who will receive the child in the UAE. Even in cases where the minor is travelling with another family member, an authorisation letter from the parents, or guardians will still be required, Air India has said. Airline staff are able to escort minors through immigration, provided that the form has been completed and the process of handing them over to the authorised person has been duly followed.
It has been stated minors could be deported if the immigration authorities in the UAE suspect illegal activity and the information provided is insufficient to address such concerns. In such cases, the normal process and subsequent fines will also apply.
This week the spotlight is on legal developments in the UAE where the long-awaited and much anticipated Arbitration Law has been Gazetted. Federal Law No. 6/2018 will apply to all local arbitrations taking place in the UAE, unless agreed otherwise. It will also apply to any international commercial arbitration taking place outside the UAE, where the parties have agreed to apply UAE arbitration law and all arbitrations arising as a result of a contractual or non-contractual relationship governed by UAE law, unless expressly excluded. We have priority requested this important legislative development from our publishing partners, SADER Legal Publishing and we will keep you updated on its progress. The Law will replace the arbitration provisions in Federal Law No. 11/1992. We have been delighted to include analysis of this important legislative development from Afridi & Angell, Al Tamimi & Company, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates LLP, Clyde and Co, Hogan Lovells and Pinsent Masons LLP and their insights can be viewed under the Commentary section of Lexis Middle East Law (www.lexismiddleeast.com).
This week the spotlight is once again on the UAE where the Cabinet has announced two key investment rule changes. Under the changes, ownership of Emirati companies by foreign entities in the mainland will be allowed. Previously this was only allowed in the free zones. The change will come into effect in the third quarter of this year. The Cabinet also approved a new long-term visa system aimed at attracting international investors and high-skilled professional workers. Investors, scientists, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs and innovators will be able to apply for a 10-year visa.
We have been delighted to include analysis of this important legislative and regulatory development from BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates LLP and K&L Gates LLP, and their insights can be viewed under the Commentary section of our website.
