On 20 October 2020, the Swedish government announced that it has blocked Chinese tech-giants Huawei and ZTE from gaining access to its new 5G wireless network, following the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority’s (“PTS”) assessment of tenderers. The ban on Huawei and ZTE was imposed following a security assessment made by the Swedish Armed Forces and the Swedish Security Service, citing cyber espionage concerns. The ban also requires Swedish telecommunication companies to remove any Huawei…
A few months after introducing new laws on Foreign Investment Restrictions (FIR) as part of the government’s Anti-Crisis Shield 4.0 programme, the Polish authority (the President of UOKiK) has issued its first decision acknowledging an acquisition that fell within the FIR. The key transaction parameters that triggered the consent requirement in this case were as follows: The investor, a private equity fund, came from a non-OECD country (the Cayman Islands);The target, the Center for Electronic Settlements…
On 11 October 2020, the EU screening mechanism for foreign direct investments potentially affecting security and public order in an EU Member State or in the whole EU became fully operational. This follows the adoption of the EU Foreign Direct Investment Regulation in March 2019 (see our previous updates here and here), when the European Commission (“Commission”) and the Member States established a coordination framework, consisting of various separate national screening mechanisms. The EU screening…
On 23 September 2020, the European Commission (“Commission”) ended a public consultation into proposals to create new review mechanisms aimed at countering distortive effects of foreign subsidies in the EU single market. The premise of the proposals is that some companies operating within the EU may be at an unfair competitive advantage, if they are receiving foreign subsidies not available to their EU counterparts due to state aid rules. The new mechanisms would apply to…