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Under the merger control rules of the Austrian Cartel Act (ACA) a pre-closing filing is required if the combined turnover of all participating undertakings amounts to at least Sch3.5 billion (US$290 million), provided that the turnover of at least two undertakings involved in the merger is at least Sch5 million. Because Section 42a para 1 ACA does not qualify the term 'turnover' (Umsatz)in geographic terms, and because the preparatory documents of the Cartel Law Amendment Act confirm the irrelevance of the distinction between domestic and foreign turnover, the Austrian Cartel Court initially applied the threshold to worldwide turnover. From the outset the turnover thresholds for the pre-closing filing requirement under Section 42a para 1 of the ACA have been considered too low. Because the Austrian Cartel Court only applied fairly weak structural link and effects tests to limit the jurisdiction of the court with respect to 'foreign' mergers and business combinations, transactions with a negligible Austrian content were subject to the pre-closing filing requirement and the one-month waiting period provided for under Section 42b ACA.

Robert Mooney, general counsel and deputy chief administrative officer, Asia Pacific region, Merrill Lynch, talks to Richard Forster

Four US appeal court rulings on Lloyd’s-related litigation have failed to resolve the issues. The conflict challenges part of the US securities law regime. By David Bernstein of Rogers & Wells, New York

Third Annual In-House Counsel Event

A new raft of financial services reforms opens the way for more competition from abroad, among other significant reforms. By Paul Belanger of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, Toronto

Avoiding censure from the European Commission, France has dropped its restrictive practices on Eurofranc management and listings. By Gilles Endréo of Linklaters & Paines, Paris

Electronic Filing System

Former special counsel at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Walter Van Dorn, is to join the London office of US firm Rogers & Wells. Based for a transition period in the firm's Washington DC office, he expects to be permanently resident in the UK by around October. Van Dorn expects to work on ADR offerings and listing of non-US companies on US exchanges. "London is really the hub for trans-national and international work. With the fall of the communist bloc that demand increased," he says. "Rogers & Wells was looking for US lawyers as are a lot of US firms. European companies need this sort of advice, and it is convenient to have the skills on offer in London so clients can cut right to the chase."

UK firm Lovell White Durrant is to open for business in Russia. In charge of setting up a Moscow office is partner Christopher Smith, head of Lovell's Central and Eastern European practice and of the Prague office. Smith previously set up the firm's Beijing office and will be dividing his time between Moscow and Prague. Resident head of the office will be Daniel Gogek, an associate who moves from Freshfields' Moscow office. He was previously at White & Case and Coudert Brothers. Freshfields partner Christian Salbang worked closely with him and says: "The last we knew was that he had decided to leave the law and go back to Canada to work in business, so it is rather a surprise. But he is a competent fellow with a lot of experience and I hope he finds at Lovell what he wasn't able to find at Freshfields."

Beijing Datang Power Generation Company has listed on both the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges. It is the first Chinese company to have an equity listing in London. The share offer raised about US$400 million and was made possible by the signing last October of a Memorandum of Understanding by regulators and exchanges in the UK and China.