Afghanistan: Compliance

The European Commission has adopted final Guidelines on exclusionary abuses of dominance under Article 102 TFEU, introducing a "workable effects approach" that narrows presumptions while expanding guidance on objective justifications and recognizing sustainability benefits as valid efficiencies for the first time. These Guidelines replace the 2008 Enforcement Priorities Guidance and are expected to significantly impact enforcement practices across EU Member States and beyond, particularly for digital market

The EU Packaging Regulation introduces sweeping reforms to packaging and packaging waste legislation across all Member States, establishing requirements for the entire lifecycle of packaging from labelling to environmental sustainability. With ambitious targets to reduce packaging waste per capita by 15% by 2040 and mandatory recyclability standards taking effect from 2030, businesses involved in product packaging face significant compliance obligations that will fundamentally reshape how they design, manuf

The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a preliminary ruling in Case C-427/24 Diagramm Halbach, establishing critical principles for determining whether products qualify as medical devices under the EU Medical Device Regulation. The judgment clarifies that manufacturer advertising alone does not determine medical device status, and that products must objectively perform medical purposes to fall within the regulatory definition.

The European Union's 20th and 21st sanctions packages against Russia mark a fundamental shift in enforcement strategy, moving beyond traditional designation lists to systematically target the financial infrastructure enabling Russia's war economy. Financial institutions now face heightened compliance obligations requiring them to identify how transactions, financing arrangements, and digital assets may indirectly facilitate sanctioned economic activity across payment channels, banking relationships, crypto-

The EU institutions have reached consensus on replacing SFDR's Articles 8 and 9 with three product categories, but significant disagreements persist on fossil fuel exposure criteria and whether alternative investment funds marketed exclusively to professional investors should be exempt from the new categorisation regime. These unresolved issues carry particular weight for private markets participants navigating the evolving regulatory landscape.

The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act continues to evolve with significant regulatory updates that reshape compliance timelines and clarify key obligations. Recent developments include the Digital Omnibus on AI, which extends implementation deadlines for high-risk systems and introduces new prohibitions on harmful AI applications, alongside comprehensive guidance from the European Commission on classification criteria, transparency requirements, and general-purpose AI model obligations.

The European Union's new Consumer Rights Directive amendment introduces a mandatory "withdrawal button" for online merchants, fundamentally changing how consumers exercise their 14-day right of withdrawal from distance contracts. This requirement, effective June 19, 2026, applies to any trader—including US-based companies—actively selling to EU consumers, creating new compliance obligations around button placement, design standards, data collection, and confirmation processes. Understanding whic

The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a landmark ruling that fundamentally changes how consumer credit providers must calculate borrowing rates across all EU Member States. The judgment establishes that interest may only be applied to the actual credit amount made available to consumers, not to financed costs such as insurance premiums that form part of the total cost of credit. This binding decision has immediate implications for credit institutions, consumer lenders, and firms providing mo

The European Commission has failed to meet its June 14, 2026 deadline to publish essential compliance resources for the EU's Forced Labor Regulation, raising questions about accountability and whether the regulation's December 2027 enforcement date should be postponed. Despite this regulatory gap, businesses must still ensure their products sold into, within, or exported from the EU are not made with forced labor as defined by ILO Conventions.