Simon Harms

Connect: Read more about Simon Harms
Firm/Organization: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Blogs: EB-5 Insights, GT London Law Blog, Inside Business Immigration, Legacy Advisors

Latest Articles

Today, 29 March 2019, was planned to be Brexit day: the UK would leave the EU at 23:00 GMT. That plan has had to be abandoned and Brexit day postponed to 12 April 2019. It may be pushed back even further. How did the UK end up here? The UK’s EU withdrawal terms, agreed in draft between the EU and UK in November 2018, were rejected by the UK Parliament – not once, but twice,…
This note addresses the timeline for the UK’s exit from the EU. It is one of a series of GTM Alerts designed to assist businesses in identifying the legal issues to consider and address in response to the UK’s referendum vote of 23 June 2016 to withdraw from the European Union. The UK has not left the EU. It will remain a member of the EU, and EU law will continue to apply in its…
This note addresses the timeline for the UK’s exit from the EU. It is one of a series of GTM Alerts designed to assist businesses in identifying the legal issues to consider and address in response to the UK’s referendum vote of 23 June 2016 to withdraw from the European Union. The UK has not left the EU. It will remain a member of the EU, and EU law will continue to apply in its…
This note addresses the timeline for the UK’s exit from the EU. It is one of a series of GTM Alerts designed to assist businesses in identifying the legal issues to consider and address in response to the UK’s referendum vote of 23 June 2016 to withdraw from the European Union. The UK has not left the EU. It will remain a member of the EU, and EU law will continue to apply in its…
The European Commission (“Commission”) has today published a significant package of measures designed to eliminate barriers to cross-border e-commerce in the European Union (“EU”).  These will impact on any companies whose products or services are sold online to consumers in the EU as well as on resellers and companies providing platforms for such sales. The package includes legislative proposals aimed at: outlawing geo-blocking (i.e. blocking consumers accessing online offers available in an EU Member State…
On 26 September 2014, the Competition & Markets Authority (“CMA”) issued its final order implementing changes to the UK’s statutory audit market (the “Final Order”). By way of background, this action represents the final step in a process which commenced in March 2011 when the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs urged the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”), the CMA’s predecessor, to investigate the UK audit market. Following an initial investigation by the OFT,…
The European Commission has recently issued a new updated version of one of the most important safe harbors, known as the De Minimis Notice (the Notice), which applies to arrangements deemed to have minor competitive importance. While there have been few substantive changes, the new version makes some subtle, but nevertheless important, changes to the scope of the safe harbor and its underlying legal logic. A recent Greenberg Traurig Alert, authored by Hans Urlus,…
The European Commission (Commission) imposed a fine of EUR 20 million on Marine Harvest, the Norwegian salmon farmer and processor, after it acquired a 48.5 percent stake in its competitor Morpol prior to obtaining the required clearance from the Commission under the European Union Merger Regulation (EUMR). The EUMR requires parties to a transaction that falls within the scope of the regulation to notify the Commission, and they are restricted from implementing the transaction before…
In the United States, merger control rules require notifications to be submitted to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in respect of certain acquisitions of non-controlling minority shareholdings. In the European Union (EU), under the current Merger Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No. 139/2004), the European Commission (Commission) only has jurisdiction to review transactions that result in a change of control. Specifically, reviews of acquisitions of non-controlling minority shareholdings (or “structural links”) can only…