Dentons’ regulatory team members from key jurisdictions around the world recently reflected on trends to monitor in the United States, Europe, China and Canada, culminating in a report titled Dentons’ pick of global regulatory trends to watch in 2016.

The report—edited by Sandy Walker, Toronto-based partner and co-chair of the Firm's Canada Region Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Practice Group—discusses what we can expect to see over the next year in the following key areas:

Competition/Antitrust Law

Competition authorities around the world will continue to aggressively pursue cartels, while also closely scrutinizing firms with market power for unilateral anti-competitive behaviour. Innovative business models, such as Uber, have created new challenges for competition/antitrust agencies who are responding through advocacy, policy-making and enforcement.

Foreign investment review and national security

Governments’ review of foreign investment is being streamlined in some countries, such as China and Canada, but is also expanding to address perceived threats to national security.

Cybersecurity and international data transfer

In 2016, cybersecurity will dominate the agenda of the C-Suite. However, that will not be the only data governance concern for organizations. Re-tooling how organizations move data internationally will also be a major pre-occupation of general counsel and privacy officers.

Economic sanctions and trade

The recent certification that Iran has met its obligations under the P5+1 Nuclear Agreement resulted in the US and EU relaxing substantial portions of their sanctions measures against Iran. On November 5, 2015, the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement was released. Businesses within the TPP zone can now begin to analyze the potential benefits resulting from tariff elimination and other preferential trading terms.

Anti-corruption

Our experts anticipate vigorous prosecution of corruption in major jurisdictions. The US will be looking for more disclosure to obtain cooperation credit while the UK has entered its first Deferred Prosecution Agreement in an anti-bribery case.

“As government priorities change, and business and technology evolve, it is important to look ahead at how the rules governing business conduct may change in the future,” said Sandy. “This report provides a high-level roadmap of the regulatory landscape in a number of areas over the next year, allowing us to provide our clients with the advice they need to do business both nationally and globally.”

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