October 24, 2016 nº 1,804 - Vol. 13
"Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do."
Johnny Carson
Read Migalhas LatinoAmérica in Spanish every Tuesday and Thursday. Visit the website at www.migalhas.com/latinoamerica
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Airbnb sues New York over controversial housing regulation law
Airbnb filed suit against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and New York City Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio in federal court on Friday challenging Senate Bill S6340A, signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo hours earlier, which would impose heavy fines on Airbnb hosts (i.e. homeowners) who break local housing regulations. S6340A serves as an amendment to the multiple dwelling law and New York City's administrative code, which prohibits homeowners from listing property that fits the category of "Class A Multiple Dwelling," which cannot be legally occupied for fewer than 30 days, on the Airbnb site or any other similar platform. The bill contains civil penalties of not more than $1,000, $5,000 and $7,500 for the first, second and third violations respectively. Airbnb stated that the law "would impose significant immediate burdens and irreparable harm" on the company requiring it to screen and scrutinize every property that a host seeks to list. The gist of Airbnb's legal complaint is that S6340A violates the company's constitutional rights to free speech and due process and the protection offered under the Communications Decency Act—a federal law that says website owners are not liable for content posted by users of the website. Schneiderman stated that "Airbnb can't have it both ways: It must either police illegal activity on its own site, or government will act to protect New Yorkers" while Airbnb responded: "In typical fashion, Albany back-room dealing rewarded a special interest—the price-gouging hotel industry—and ignored the voices of tens of thousands of New Yorkers." (Click here)
UN rights expert calls for next secretary-general to eliminate tax havens
UN civil rights expert Alfred de Zayas on Friday called on incoming secretary-general Antonio Guterres to host an international conference on phasing out offshore havens to force billionaires and "kleptocrats" to pay their share of taxes. De Zayas reported that as much as USD $32 trillion is held in offshore accounts, which costs nations up to $3 trillion per year in lost taxes. De Zayas stated, "[c]orruption, bribery, tax fraud and tax evasion have such grave effects on human welfare that they must be exposed, prosecuted and punished nationally and internationally," by "[establishing] an inter-governmental tax body with a mandate to draft standards and ensure enforcement of measures against perpetrators."
New Brazilian civil procedure code
On October 25, CBMA - Centro Brasileiro de Mediação e Arbitragem will hold a seminar "The New Brazilian Civil Procedure Code – The appropriate dispute resolution methods and other controversial topics", at the Firjan's Convention Center, in Rio de Janeiro. Special guests justices Luiz Fux, of the Federal Supreme Court, and Luis Felipe Salomão, of the Superior Court of Justice, and minister Bruno Dantas, of the Federal Court of Auditors will be speaking. (Click here)
The right to be forgotten
In this exclusive article, Rodrigo de Assis Torres and Patrick Barros Rahy, lawyers at Dannemann Siemsen Advogados, talk about the right to be forgotten in the Brazilian judiciary, and the pressure that some cases suffer with the public interest and public press freedom. (Click here)
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Ugly US election race a poor ad for democracy in China
"It's the most entertaining campaign ever and the essence of American politics is entertainment." The view of one 19-year-old Chinese student watching the US presidential race from Beijing. He's not the only one laughing. Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins on 8 November, the Chinese Communist Party believes it is already a winner. For decades it has said that American democracy is a sham, rigged by and for a narrow elite. Now the Republican candidate for the White House says the same. For decades Beijing has smarted under American disapproval for locking up political enemies. Now Donald Trump says "crooked Hillary" should be in jail, and that he "can't wait to begin the purge of liberals from America". Purges and political prosecutions are staples of the Chinese Communist Party rule book, but no-one, least of all in China, expects that rule book to provide any guide for the United States. And then there's the trading of personal insults and allegations about Clinton's mishandling of emails and Trump's treatment of women.
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US to examine AT&T deal to buy Time Warner
US lawmakers and both presidential candidates have raised questions about AT&T's deal to buy Time Warner. The US telecoms giant, already the country's third largest cable provider, is paying $85.4bn for the company, which owns CNN and HBO. A Senate subcommittee responsible for competition will hold a hearing in November. However AT&T's chief executive Randall Stephenson believes regulators will approve the deal. The antitrust subcommittee said the deal would potentially raise significant antitrust issues about how this deal changes AT&T's incentives. AT&T has the means by which millions of Americans consume their entertainment. It owns the platform - be that cable or broadband - which enables people to watch their favorite shows. But it does not - until now- own the shows or the "content" which households want to watch The biggest merger to be announced this year would combine AT&T's distribution network, which includes 130m mobile phone customers and 25m pay-TV subscribers, with content from the Warner Brothers film studios and the cable TV channels HBO, the Cartoon Network and CNN. The proposed billion merger faces tough regulatory scrutiny, but the potential to challenge cable companies may make a compelling case. (Click here)
We are behind, says Trump campaign
The Donald Trump campaign has admitted the Republican lags behind Hillary Clinton with just over two weeks to go before Americans cast their votes. "We are behind. She has some advantages," said his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who added: "We're not giving up. We know we can win this." On Friday, Trump made a rare admission that he could lose. New polls suggest Clinton remains well ahead nationally and in several battleground states. Her campaign has predicted this is going to be "the biggest election in American history".
France prepares to demolish Calais 'jungle' camp
More than 1,200 police and officials in France are preparing for the clearance of the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. Authorities say some 7,000 people live in the camp in squalid conditions. They will be offered placements in refugee centers across France. But there is concern that some migrants will refuse to go because they still want to get to Britain. There were clashes between the police and groups of migrants over the weekend. The UK has begun to accept some of the estimated 1,300 unaccompanied children from the camp. The first group without family ties to the UK has arrived in Britain under the "Dubs amendment" rules, which grant refuge to the most vulnerable. Charities are helping the French authorities to process minors that remain in the camp, by conducting interviews and establishing who should also be transferred to the UK.
Trump isn't going to sue his sexual assault accusers
This time, Donald Trump is promising to put his sizable legal dollars behind a defamation lawsuit against the women who have accused him of sexual assault. At a rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump declared, "all of these liars will be sued after the election is over." On the one hand, it's nice to see that Trump is getting acquainted with basic legal logic. The merits of the lawsuit Trump avowed against the New York Times are non-existent; it would have made little sense to sue media outlets for publishing the sexual assault allegations against him without also suing the actual women who made those allegations in the first place. Perhaps the threats Trump leveled on Saturday were a sort of tying up of loose ends. But since Trump hasn't actually followed through on suing the Times, his public threat is just his latest batch of bluster, served up to scare off any women who might be considering raising new complaints. If that was his plan, it already failed; Porn star Jessica Drake came forward Saturday, with attorney Gloria Allred by her side, telling her story of allegedly being harassed and pestered for sex by the GOP nominee. If Trump did choose to litigate, it just wouldn't work. For starters, his lawyers would probably explain to him that naming "all" the women who have accused him of sexual impropriety is ridiculous. This isn't a class-action lawsuit. These are eleven separate women, each of whom has made an individual claim against Trump. The allegations may be eerily similar to one another (to say nothing of their striking resemblance to Trump's own words on the Access Hollywood tape), but they are totally different in terms of time, place, circumstance, and details. Eleven different lawsuits, in several different jurisdictions, with different factual bases, and different sets of pleadings would all need to be drafted, filed, and litigated. If Trump had any chance of winning, these lawsuits alone could keep an entire law firm in business for a while.
Judge overseeing lawsuit over Alaska Air, Virgin America merger to move ahead with trial
The proposed merger of Alaska Air Group and Virgin America ran into a new complication this week from a federal judge who is overseeing a consumer lawsuit to block the $2.6 billion transaction on antitrust grounds.
Samsung faces class action suit over exploding phones
Samsung may at risk from several class action lawsuits in the wake of the South Korean company's exploding phone scandal. (Click here)
EU hopes to unblock Canada trade deal
After seven years of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), talks broke down on Friday. The European Parliament president says he is optimistic that a free-trade deal between the EU and Canada can be signed soon despite last-minute obstacles. Objections by a Belgian region, which single-handedly opposes the deal, "are for us Europeans to solve", Martin Schulz said. Exercising its right under the Belgian federal constitution, it called for clarity on safeguards to protect labor, environmental and consumer standards. As the agreement effectively died, it underscored the extent to which trade has become politically radioactive around much of the globe.
Outrage over 60-day jail term for sex with young daughter
A judge in the US state of Montana, who gave a 60-day jail term to a man for having sex with his 12-year-old daughter, has faced growing calls for his removal. The 40-year-old father of three's sentence also included a 30-year suspended prison term. District Judge John McKeon has defended himself, saying the victim's mother and grandmother opposed a jail sentence. A petition calling for his removal has gathered more than 70,000 signatures. Under a deal with the state, the man pleaded guilty to a single felony count of incest for having sex with his daughter. Two other charges were dismissed.
Banks poised to relocate out of UK over Brexit
Large banks are getting ready to relocate out of the UK early next year over fears around Brexit, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) has warned. Smaller banks could also move operations overseas by 2017. Most banks had backed the UK remaining in the EU. The current "public and political debate at the moment is taking us in the wrong direction." "Banking is probably more affected by Brexit than any other sector of the economy, both in the degree of impact and the scale of the implications," the BBA said. "It is the UK's biggest export industry by far and is more internationally mobile than most. But it also gets its rules and legal rights to serve its customers cross-border from the EU."
Bob Dylan's Nobel silence 'impolite and arrogant'
Bob Dylan's failure to acknowledge his Nobel Prize in literature is "impolite and arrogant", according to a member of the body that awards it. The 75-year-old singer was named the shock winner of the prize last week. But all efforts by the Swedish Academy to contact him have failed, and he has not acknowledged the win in public. A reference to the prize was removed from Dylan's website last week.
Iraq bans alcoholic beverages
The Iraq Parliament approved a law "Forbidding the import, manufacture and sale of all kinds of alcohol drinks." Until this time, alcohol has been made readily available in shops, bars, restaurant and hotels in Baghdad and in some of the provinces of Iraq, and it was not unusual for young people in Baghdad to be observed drinking. Lawmaker and head of the parliament's legal panel, Mahmoud al-Hassan, stated that the law was necessary to preserve Iraq's identity as a Muslim country.
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Business Week
50 Companies to Watch in 2017
The Economist
Russia: Putinism
Der Spiegel
Zu viele Nullen Gier
L'Espresso
Ricatto alla Reppublica
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