Chinese firms use obscure legal tactics to stem virus losses
The virus has led to firms trying to get out of contracts
“IT IS GOING to be an almighty legal mess for months and years to come.” That grim prognosis of the potential legal and business consequences of the viral outbreak in China comes from a veteran of the country’s business scene. Dan Harris of Harris Bricken, an American law firm, worries that today’s trickle of mainland suppliers declaring force majeure (FM), an obscure legal manoeuvre used to get out of contracts, could turn into a tidal wave.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A force to be reckoned with”
From the February 22nd 2020 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Business
Germans are world champions of calling in sick
It’s easy and it pays well
Knowing what your colleagues earn
The pros and cons of greater pay transparency
A $500bn investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities
It’s build, baby, build
Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy
Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex
OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software
The more reasoning it does, the more computer power it uses
Donald Trump once tried to ban TikTok. Now can he save it?
To keep the app alive in America, he must persuade China to sell up