Latest blog articles

Could you estimate how much time of your day you spend on social media? The answer would most likely be something along the lines of ‘a lot’ or ‘I’m always connected, so I get notifications all the time anyways’ but an actual estimate, that’s a very tough guess to take. However, for most people, it...

One view on social media communication is that platforms should remove content deemed to be inappropriate or disturbing and suspend users who have repeatedly violated the Community Guidelines and should do so in a consistent and coherent manner. A contrasting view is that users can share what they...

On the 9^th of February, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that forcing suspects to provide access to their smartphone with a fingerprint is not a breach of the privilege against self-incrimination. The case originated from an ex officio appeal ‘in the interest of the law’ in a case of the Court of North...

After the initial relief that followed upon reaching a Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve, we slowly see how this treaty is going to affect the tax domain. In this blog I will briefly focus on the area of fiscal state aid, i.e. the...

The disturbances social media has been causing to its users’ mental health cannot be ignored. It is of extreme importance that the private and public spheres work together to protect consumers from the unfeasible search for perfection.

Over the few past years, there has been a professionalization of social media content creators. These creators now have the power to sway their followers, start trends, or serve as role models for their audiences. These individuals, that have such online persuasive power, are called “influencers”...

Schumacker is one of the most important cases in EU tax law. It opened the door to many more legal proceedings before the CJEU that tested the limits the Member States’ tax sovereignty against the force of EU law.

The very recent ruling of the CJEU in DK (C-653/19 PPU, 28 November 2019) came to verify two quite depressing suspicions about the current status of European criminal law. First, Directive 2016/343 on the presumption of innocence remains an instrument with staggeringly limited applicability...

National laws or ‘legal traditions’ are not the main obstacle to realising the ideal of ‘effective legal assistance’ embedded in the EU procedural rights’ Directives. The resistance to realising this ideal originates mainly from the professional cultures of relevant actors, including criminal...

There has been much brouhaha about equalization levies in the context of the digital economy. One of the hotly debated issues is whether such levies are covered by tax treaties at all. In this post, I should like to reflect over this issue as objectively as possible. I shall not, however, delve into...