On December 2nd, 67 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the European Union, concluded negotiations on an agreement to simplify trade in services and to reduce red tape in that sector. The signatories, including key players such as the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, and China, represent...
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, has published new cookie guidelines for both website users (in Finnish) and service providers (in Finnish) in September 2021. The guidelines also apply to other tracking technologies similar to cookies, such as tracking pixels and cookies stored through mobile applications. The aim of the guidelines is, in...
In Finland, the rules for gambling are strict. The only accepted operator in the Finnish gambling market is the state-owned monopoly Veikkaus and although Finns can gamble online on international websites, marketing such games for Finnish consumers is also prohibited. The government is now preparing another reform of the Lotteries...
While eSports is classified as sports in Finnish taxation, it involves several interpretative factors within the field of tax law. One issue that gamers face, is the versatile stream of income which cause uncertainty under the current tax regime. For many, the most important source of income are tournament prizes,...
The Epic Games v. Apple trial aka (possibly) the most epic legal showdown in the video game industry history started on May 3rd in the US District Court of Northern California. Disputes arose between the two companies when Epic Games made updates to its best-selling online video game, Fortnite, attempting...
In September 2020, we discussed the Epic Games vs. Apple (and Google) case in our blog post. To cut a long story short, Epic Games introduced a new payment system for its best-selling mobile game, Fortnite, offering an alternative in-app purchase method. The new payment system bypasses the 30 %...
There are many specific questions in the field of labor law that startup companies should take into account gladly already when planning the actions of the company. In the beginning, the financial resources of the company can be limited, and the need for permanent employees can vary from time to...
We have already covered some basics relating to loot boxes in our article. After writing the article there have been some major developments in the gaming world - so let’s take a look at the recent issues regarding the infamous in-game reward mechanism. What exactly is going on? During the fall of 2020,...
The reform of the taxation of employee share issues was finally confirmed at the end of 2020 and it entered into force on the 1st of January 2021. The new amendments to the Income Tax Act do not only clarify current valuation issues, but also provide opportunities to engage personnel...
How to protect your intellectual property There are several forms of intellectual property that your company may own, for example trademarks, patents, designs, utility models or copyrighted works. Although confidentiality laws may protect some of these assets, it is crucial that your company remembers to take active measures and look...
