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The Korean law on class action lawsuits which went into effect on January 1 2005 is the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act. As of now, this statute applies only to securities-related claims for damages based on false securities reports and information circulars, false business reports, semi-annual or quarterly reports, use of non-public information, stock price manipulation or negligent auditing by an external auditor. Due to various strict requirements in addition to such limited grounds for the commencement of a class action lawsuit in Korea, this statute has rarely been used. Thus far, only six class action lawsuits have been filed, and even among such lawsuits, not one has progressed to a final decision from the court of first instance. Due to criticisms of this status quo, the National Assembly and citizens' groups have been discussing a complete overhaul of the Securities Class Action Lawsuits Act.

Vijaya Sampath As of April 1 2014, 283 sections of the Companies Act 2013 (of the total 470 sections) and the related rules dealing with these sections have been notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Many new concepts have been introduced, the scope of others has been widened and many sections in the previous Act of 1956 have been dropped. Some of the new concepts range from new classes of one person and small companies to shareholder empowerment through class action suits. Certain profit-making companies have to spend 2% of their average net profits in the three preceding financial years on specified social schemes, or explain their reasons for not doing so.

Teruyoshi Takahashi On April 1 2014, Tokyo Stock Exchange enforced an Amendment to the Securities Listing Regulations. Events that will trigger timely disclosure for listed real estate investment trust (REIT) securities (disclosure events) are substantially expanded. This Amendment was brought about in connection with the Amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act as of April 1 2014, which made insider trading rules applicable to the trading of listed investment units issued by J-REITs which invest in real estate properties. Under the new Securities Listing Regulations, the following items (in summary and not limited to the following) are newly provided as disclosure events (for some items, exemptions are provided in the Enforcement Rules for Securities Listing Regulations):

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Teixeira Legislation on anti-money laundering was passed in Macau in 2006, although there were some previous regulations already providing for it. Law 2/2006 on the prevention and repression of money laundering crimes of April 3 2006, established measures aimed at preventing and suppressing the criminal offence of money laundering. It defined the gains of money laundering as any assets derived from the commission, through any form of participation, of a typified act, which would be punishable with a penalty of imprisonment of a maximum term of three years.

Klaus Henrik Wiese-Hansen Christoffer N Sortland Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) in Norway is gradually nearing. On February 18 2014, the Ministry of Finance sent a draft for new regulations on public hearing, with a deadline for comments of May 18 2014. This article provides a short summary of the draft regulations, which partly concerns the EU Commission Delegated Regulations under the AIFMD. Norwegian authorities failed to implement the AIFMD within the transposition deadline of July 22 2013. The Ministry of Finance is drafting an AIFM Act, which is expected to be proposed before Easter 2014. Implementation of the AIFMD in Norway will probably take place on or around July 1 2014.

Following the Renewable Energy Act 2011 (RE Act) which came into force in December 2011, the implementation of the feed-in tariff (FIT) mechanism under the RE Act has been an overwhelming success. After the FIT mechanism was implemented in Peninsular Malaysia over a period of two years, Malaysia had a cumulative total of 119MW of renewable energy connected to the grid as opposed to only 61.2MW of renewable energy capacity connected to the grid from the implementation of the earlier, small renewable energy power programme, which spanned a period of 10 years.

Adrian Roseti As of February 1 2014, both Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes were implemented, replacing regulations that have been in force since 1968, drafted at a time when the political status quo in Romania not only discouraged but even forbade private initiative. Although the previous codes have been subject to several adjustments and substantial case law may have cleared several grey areas, in order to adjust to the realities of the modern economy (for instance, properly defining energy theft, telecommunication resources and internet access and data), the need for new explicit regulation has superseded the conservative approach. Despite the fact that the new provisions were initially announced as imposing milder sanctions, it appears that whereas in specific cases some sanctions have decreased, any multiple offence is now sanctioned in a more drastic manner and in some cases sanctions have even increased (for example in competition law crimes).

Kerem Turunç of TURUNÇ describes some of the recent changes to Turkish securities regulation

Noyan Turunç of TURUNÇ discusses collective labour relations under Turkish law

Serra Basoglu Gurkaynak of Mehmet Gun & Partners analyses the regulatory framework of M&A transactions in Turkey and offers an overview of activity across the regulated markets