“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown “Old pirates, yes they rob I.” The opening words to Redemption Song are as hard hitting now as they were when first bellowed by the iconic musical legend – Bob Marley – years ago. These words however may be taking on a new meaning in this era digitization and globalization where information is king. This era is
By: Ainsley Brown It would seem that yet another Canadian bank has received a wrap on the knuckles in the UK. The latest bank to be disciplined: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), who lost an employment age discrimination case. The case was brought by a 42 year old London based banker who was made redundant in 2008 as part of
By: Ainsley Brown The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the agency charged with policing trade practices – read unfair trade practices – has launched a study into the high cost associated with business insolvency. The study will focus on the way insolvency practitioners, namely accountants and lawyers are appointed and how they set their fees. The importance of the study
By: Ainsley Brown “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar,” has taken on a new meaning in the UK as Kit Kat ‘breaks off’ some cash cocoa to farmers. Nestlé, the Swiss makers of Kit Kat, has announced that the very tasty chocolate snack as of mid-January will become a Fair
By: Ainsley Brown In what is clearly a sign of the continuing rise of tensions in global trade relations, China last week imposed duties US and Russian steel. The target of the duties is flat rolled steel used in the electric power sector. According to the Chinese the steel products were being dumped – that is being sold at below
By: Ainsley Brown Under a British Columbian Court of Appeal ruling Canada’s Most Reliable Network has gotten the boot – well the ad at least. Rogers Communications Inc., the Canadian telephone, internet and cable company, that advertised as Canada’s Most Reliable Network has been told by the B.C. Court of Appeal that it has to drop the Most in its
By: Ainsley Brown Imagine being told that you could no long buy a BlackBerry or being told that the services of the one you already own will be restricted, just imagine. Think it can’t happen; well think again for this has now entered the range of possibility in the United States. The Canadian company, Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), the
By: Ainsley Brown EBay was fined yesterday €1.7 million by the Paris Commercial for violating an injunction prohibiting the sale of LVMH products on the online auction site. The injunction was imposed on eBay last year after it was taking to court by LVMH for allowing the sale of its products on its site. LVMH, the world’s largest luxury good
By: Ainsley Brown Could the longest running trade dispute in World Trade Organization (WTO) history be coming to an end? If newspaper reports are to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt them, then the 16 year old trade war could be very close to ending. At the center of this row is the Banana – yes the
By: Ainsley Brown There is nothing new with European Commission having to balance competing constituents – both market and geographic. The case remains the same with the anti-dumping duties put in place in 2006 to protect EU shoe manufacturers from cheaper Chinese and Vietnamese imports. The EU will decide tomorrow if it will continue or end the duties on the cheaper Chinese and Vietnamese