General

Marine Insight’s Online Resources for Maritime Piracy

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Information is available to help to keep informed on piracy on the high seas, as well as how best to deal with this problem Marine Insight has published links to 28 sources of information, useful to professionals in different aspects of the shipping industry.   “With the increase in piracy at the sea, several maritime organisations and defence agencies have started providing online updates on events related to maritime piracy which is taking place around the world,” reads the introduction.  This … Continued

Public Consultation – Antitrust Damages Directive

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The Office for Competition has recently launched a public consultation on the implementation of the Antitrust Damages Directive in Malta. The draft legislation relates to Malta’s obligation to transpose Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union.  The Directive is commonly referred to as the “Antitrust Damages Directive”. … Continued

EU Single Market Forum to be modernised over 2016

EU Single Market Forum to be modernised over 2016

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The Government has issued a press release on the new EU Single Market Forum, one of the Commission’s agenda items for 2016. One of the aims of the European Commission for 2016 is to modernize the current Single Market Strategy. The Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, in collaboration with GRTU and the Malta Employer’s Association, held a seminar entitled “Single Market Forum – Tackling internal barriers to movement of goods and labour,” seeking to better gauge the  … Continued

Merchant Shipping Notice 124 (2015) – Malta

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Transport Malta has recently issued a Merchant Shipping Notice to ships visiting US Ports.  It noted that many detentions arise from the deficiencies in terms of environmental protection and fire safety.  It therefore now requires ships to notify the relevant directorate of their intentions before entering US Ports. The timeliness of notifying Transport Malta is the responsibility of the Master and the ISM Manager. MS Notices are issued regularly by Transport Malta as directions to ships and shipowners in the operation … Continued

Thoughts on sanctions in the legal system

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While reading the news on various media sites today, I have come across a number of irate comments by the general public, over fines which are either excessively high or excessively low. So yesterday, the news hit the media with a man who was fined 20 Euros for masturbating in public, decidedly a lewd act under Maltese criminal law, with minimum and maximum fines between 6.99 and 58 Euro. The fact that the amounts appear laughable is not the fault … Continued

European court grants compensation to Zabbar property owners who had rights violated

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The Times of Malta reported today that the European Court of Human Rights ordered Government to property owners in Zabbar for the violation of their rights, since they were not allowed to seek an increase in rent for their property to reflect current market values. The court ordered the government to pay Carmel Zammit and Doris Attard Cassar €40,000 in respect of pecuniary damage and €10,000, plus any chargeable tax, in respect of costs and expenses. It said that Government … Continued

Valletta Port hosts 5 cruise ships all together

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Only this last Wednesday 22nd June, Valletta hosted five cruise ships all in a single day and generally all at once, It is estimated that there were some 14,000 passengers. This year is set to be a record year in terms of cruise passengers visiting Maltese ports, estimated at 640,000 visitors on the 325 ships due. The cruise industry injects much needed funds into the Maltese economy and stops in Malta bring thousands of people to this island rich in … Continued

The ECJ confirms Commission’s power to impose high fines in cartel cases

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Peter Citron, of Hogan Lovells, Belgium, has alerted today that on the 9th July the ECJ has endorsed the power of the European Commission to impose large fines on multinational companies operating at various levels of the manufacturing and supply chain. It confirms that, for the purposes of cartel fine calculation, the Commission may take into account non-EEA sales of cartelized inputs if these inputs have been built into finished products and subsequently sold to a third party in the EEA … Continued

Meet Geraldine Spiteri !

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I was admitted to practice law in 2002 and is a member of the Chamber of Advocates. I subsequently qualified in the specialised areas of EU and Comparative Law (Magister Juris at University of Malta) and International Maritime Law (LL.M. at the IMO International Maritime Law Institute).I lecture at the MCAST Maritime Institute and MCAST Institute of Agribusiness, as well as the European Institute of Education in matters relating to maritime law. I have served as a judicial assistant at … Continued

The Malta Bargains Decision – Clarifying the Position of Authorities

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In a recent judgement of the Competition and Consumer Tribunal, the Office for Competition obtained confirmation that a public authority, in its dealings with market players, does not qualify as an ‘undertaking’ in terms of the Competition Act, unless it is actually performing a commercial function in the market. The case concerned a subsidy granted by the Malta Tourism Authority to tourism operators: the claimant alleged that the authority discriminated against it in the grant of said subsidy when compared … Continued