The São Paulo State Court of Appeals (TJSP) has ruled in a recent judgment that the São Paulo State Tax Authority must reimburse costs and procedural expenses incurred by a defendant acquitted in a public civil action for administrative corruption.

The Brazilian Arbitration Law (Federal Law No. 9,307/1996) enshrines, in its article 8, sole paragraph, the so-called principle of jurisdiction over jurisdiction, according to which it is up to the arbitrators to decide on their own jurisdiction (subject to subsequent analysis by the Judiciary, in the scenarios set forth for annulment of the arbitration award). The principle establishes, therefore, a limit on interference by the state judge, in view of the parties' choice of arbitration.

After the approval and promulgation of Legislative Decree No. 15/2018 by the Federal Senate, on March 20, the Agreement on Air Transport between Brazil and the United States (Open Skies), signed by former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Barak Obama in 2011, awaits only the promulgation of a presidential decree to be enacted.

Heritage funds, also known as endowments or philanthropic funds, have recently been regulated by Presidential Decree No. 851, of September 10, 2018.

CVM Guidance Opinion No. 38, issued on the 25th of this month, deals with the fiduciary duties of managers within the framework of indemnity agreements entered into between publicly-held companies and their management (officers, members of the board of directors or audit committee, members of committees established in bylaws, among others).

Companies were surprised last September with the enactment of ICMS Convention 106, which aims to regulate the procedures for collection of ICMS applied to transactions with digital goods and merchandise, traded through electronic data transfer, and grants exemption for withdrawals intended for final consumers.