The Legal 500

In February Parliament adopted new rules in relation to both domestic and international jurisdiction in civil matters. The new jurisdiction rules will enter into force on 1 September 2009. As Finland is a member state of the European Union, the EU rules on international jurisdiction, such as the Brussels I and II Regulations, (EC) No 44/2001 and (EC) No 2201/2003, and other provisions regarding certain specific subject matters, are applicable. The new rules on international jurisdiction will apply in cases falling outside the territorial or subject matter scope of the applicable EU regulations or international conventions binding Finland.

The European Commission has recently introduced two important regulatory packages that seek to respond to the challenges posed by rapidly developing trading technologies, particularly so-called high frequency trading. If the new regulations are adopted as drafted, considerable changes are in store for both those entities that engage in high frequency trading and the trading venues providing them access to the market.

Lotta Uusitalo, Anne Petäjäniemi-Björklund and Leea Salminen, Attorneys at Law of Procopé & Hornborg, have written a book on the implications of competition law on information exchange.

The EC waste directive (2008/98/EC) will be implemented in Finland by the new Finnish Waste Act, which will enter into force on May 1, 2012.

Introduction Robert S Peckar Peckar & Abramson, PC 3

Written by Martin von Willebrand

The Finnish CFC legislation implies that a Finnish company may be subject to income tax for its share of the profit of a CFC regardless of whether these profits are distributed by the CFC to its shareholders or not. A CFC is defined as a foreign corporation owned and controlled by a Finnish tax resident that pays income tax in its domicile at a rate less than 60% of the Finnish corporate income tax rate.

The Finnish Supreme Administrative Court decided on 7 March 2011 (KHO 2011:21) to request for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) concerning the question whether a Finnish parent company may deduct the final tax losses of its Swedish subsidiary after a cross-border merger.

The European Commission presented on 16 March 2011 a proposal that calls for a common system for calculating the tax base of business operating in the EU. At the moment, a company active within the whole EU can be forced to comply with up to 27 different national tax systems. The new Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) seeks to reduce the administrative burden, compliance costs and legal uncertainties by creating a "one-stop-shop" system where the profits and losses across the EU could be consolidated.

By its decision 18 February 2011 (S09/3055) the Helsinki Appellate Court confirmed that an owner is entitled to rely on the quality assurance of a well-known construction company at an acceptance inspection. The court held that the owner is entitled to demand rectification of construction defects and to claim damages for deficiencies discovered during the guarantee period.

The Finnish Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) decided on 31 January 2011 (KHO:2011:10) to ask for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) concerning the question whether a tax-neutral share exchange can be completed between a company residing in an EU country and a company residing in the European Economic Area (EEA) (such as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).