vLex European Union

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world and cause unprecedented health and economic challenges, technological measures, once thought extreme, are now being deployed for the purposes of contact tracing, infection tracking, and quarantine compliance. (See Article)

While regulators in the EU have lifted the temporary COVID-19-related short-selling bans, they will monitor the markets and impose further restrictions if required. Regulators in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain announced that the temporary short-selling bans imposed in those jurisdictions expired on 18 May 2020 at 11.59pm. (See Article)

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to 1,426 billion USD in 2019. In recent years, a number of countries around the world have implemented measures to strengthen their FDI review mechanisms. Undoubtedly, this worldwide trend is having an impact on international mergers and acquisitions transactions as illustrated by a number of cases highlighted in the media. Recently, there have been a number of important legal developments at European and international levels, including the broadening and enhancement of existing foreign investment review mechanisms in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and the United States, to name but a few. Please see full Memo below for more information. (See Article)

Further to our Clients and Friends Memorandum of 22 April 2020, on 18 May 2020 the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) issued a press release on the non-renewal of and termination of short selling bans by the following national competent authorities (“NCAs”)... (See Article)

Trotz der derzeitigen Situation rund um COVID möchten wir uns auch positiven Themen widmen und Sie weiterhin über die aktuellen Entwicklungen im Bereich Sustainable Finance am Laufenden halten: Anfang März hat die Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (kurz: TEG) ihren Abschlussbericht zur EU Taxonomie ökologisch nachhaltiger Tätigkeiten gemeinsam mit einem Usability Guide zum Europäischen Green Bond Standard veröffentlicht. Neben weiteren inhaltlichen Updates, die u.a. den politischen Consensus zur Taxonomie Verordnung vom Dezember 2019 widerspiegeln, beinhaltet insbesondere der EU Green Bond Usability Guide viele praktische Leitlinien für Marktteilnehmer im Sustainable Finance Sektor. (See Article)

On 18 May 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced the non-renewal of the emergency restrictions on short selling and similar transactions by the Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA) of Austria, the Financial Securities and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) of France, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) of Greece and the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) of Spain. In its announcement, ESMA further confirmed the early termination of the emergency restrictions by the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) of Italy, which were due to expire on 18 June 2020. In addition, ESMA’s announcement clarified that the net short position reporting threshold imposed in March 2020 remains in force until 16 June 2020, at which point it may be renewed. (See Article)

While the COVID-19 outbreak is a severe public health emergency for citizens and societies, it also poses the risk of a serious downturn in the economy, affecting businesses, jobs, and households. In these exceptional circumstances, undertakings of all kinds may face a sudden shortage or even unavailability of liquidity, may suffer damages directly caused by the measures taken to tame the spread of the virus, or may struggle to preserve the continuity of economic activity during and after the outbreak. Given the limited size of the EU budget, the main financial support comes from Member States’ national budgets Therefore, undertakings seeking to benefit from financial support offered by (See Article)

The type of contractual provisions that a company is required by the GDPR to impose upon a service provider differ based upon two primary factors: (1) whether the service provider is a “processor,” a “controller,” or a “joint controller,” and (2) whether the service provider is located outside of the European Union and the parties intend to rely upon the Standard Contractual Clauses as an adequacy measure for effectuating the cross-border transfer of information.  The following provides a matrix that indicates the type of documents that are typically implemented depending upon these two factors. (See Article)

von Rainer Wilke, Dr, Harald Selzner, Frank Grell, Jörn Kowalewski, Joachim Grittmann, Dr. Ulrich Klockenbrink, Elisabetta Righini, Natalia Solarova Die zweite Änderung des Befristeten Rahmens erlaubt es den EU-Mitgliedstaaten, Unternehmen, die von COVID-19 betroffen sind, staatliche Beihilfen in Form von Rekapitalisierungen und nachrangigem Fremdkapital zu gewähren. Damit ist zu erwarten, dass die EU Kommission kurzfristig auch über die noch anhängige beihilferechtliche Notifizierung… (See Article)

Following the European Union (EU) Member States’ transposition deadline of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) into national law on 10 January 2020, the European Commission (Commission) issued an action plan (Action Plan) on anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) on 7 May 2020, together with a public consultation. The Action Plan and its proposals will now be considered at political level, and interested stakeholders may submit their views on the consultation by 29 July 2020. (See Article)

The EU Foreign Direct Investment Regulation will be in full force from October 11, 2020. We expect it will radically alter the dynamics of foreign investment review in Europe. Any non-EU investor and any EU target company that is the subject of an investment from outside the EU, in any sector of the economy, should prepare for the Regulation. This report from our antitrust/competition and international trade practices details what the new regulation does, and what you need to know, including: - How the dynamics of foreign investment reviews will change in Europe; - How companies can adapt to the new system; - Potential flashpoints between the European Commission’s role and the role of national authorities; - Tensions with existing principles of EU law; - Protections for strategic European companies during the COVID-19 economic turmoil. Please see full Report below for more information. (See Article)

On April 21, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published two sets of guidelines addressing data processing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines address the use of location data and contact tracing tools to combat the spread of COVID-19 and the use of health data for the purposes of scientific research into COVID-19 (together, the guidelines). (See Article)

CEP Magazine (May 2002) The European Commission released a plan on March 11, the Circular Economy Action Plan,  that builds on the Ecodesign Directive that will help guide European Union-wide economic policy toward 2050. The plan specifically mentions the “right to repair,” but not just for machine tools and washing machines, but for cell phones and cell phone–related products as well. This is a big step for the commission, as cell phone manufacturers have resisted this policy for years. (See Article)

EMIR REFIT Mandatory Reporting provisions require market participants to consider their existing Delegated Reporting arrangements. Key Points: ..From 18 June 2020, financial counterparties (FCs) will be liable for the timely and accurate reporting of over-the-counter (OTC) derivative contracts on behalf of both themselves and their non-financial counterparties (NFCs) that are not subject to the clearing obligation (NFC-s) (Mandatory Reporting). To enable an FC to report, an NFC- will need to provide to such FC the data that the FC cannot reasonably be expected to possess. Currently the obligation to report applies to both parties, with NFC-s often delegating their reporting obligations (See Article)

The spread of COVID-19 is causing Europe to experience one of the greatest health crises in decades, the consequences of which are still unpredictable. Faced with this unprecedented situation, the governments of different European countries have been forced to issue a series of legislative measures to alleviate the social, economic, administrative, and health effects of the COVID-19 crisis. This piece is an update to our earlier article published 27 March 2020. Please see full Publication below for more information. (See Article)

In light of COVID-19, and in response to requests from European trade associations, the European Commission has published its proposal to amend Directive 2011/16/EU which deals with various strands of administrative co-operation in the field of taxation. Significantly, the proposal includes an extension to the time limit for reporting information under the new rules on cross-border tax arrangements know as DAC 6 (implemented by Council Directive 2018/822/EU). (See Article)

On Friday 8 May 2020, the European Commission announced a proposal to postpone by three months the initial reporting deadlines for “DAC6”, the incoming mandatory disclosure regime for potentially aggressive tax arrangements. (See Article)

The Background: Manufacturers and brand owners of personal protective equipment ("PPE") and other "essential" items have discovered unauthorised third parties reselling their products at vastly inflated prices, including on websites such as Amazon. Such price gouging can cause damage to the manufacturers' goodwill and reputation. The Issue: Can manufacturers and brand owners can prevent price gouging by unauthorised third-party distributors? (See Article)

AVIATION REGULATORY AND POLICY - COVID-19: European Commission Proposes Package Of Measures To Support Transport Sector - On 29 April 2020, the European Commission proposed a package of measures which aim to provide relief to the transport sector, ease the regulatory burden and reduce costs for transport companies. (See Article)

On May 4, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (‘EDPB’) adopted updated guidelines on the meaning of ‘consent’ under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). (See Article)

This article is produced by our European Tax team, which is part of our global Tax practice. Our series, "Understanding Tax", explores commercially relevant and recent changes to the international tax environment. The last ten years have seen the international tax landscape shift dramatically. Growing consensus that the international taxation system is no longer fit for purpose has fuelled the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD")’s Base Erosion Profit Shifting ("BEPS") initiative. As the BEPS recommendations have been implemented, developments in both national and international law indicate that existing and future cross-border structuring should be carefully examined. (See Article)

On 7 May 2020, the European Commission (Commission) issued a comprehensive and ambitious Action Plan and public consultation designed to strengthen the European Union's (EU) legal framework to fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, following a wave of recent high-profile money laundering scandals at European banks.  This post focuses on the Action Plan’s proposal to establish a new EU-level supervisory and enforcement body to monitor and enforce companies’ compliance with EU anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) legislation. (See Article)

The first State aid measures authorized by the European Commission (Commission) following the COVID-19 outbreak were aimed at helping companies to cover their immediate liquidity needs, mainly through bank loans guaranteed by EU Member States. Please see full Publication below for more information. (See Article)

The Financial Stability Board has launched a consultation on global stablecoin arrangements. The consultation is in response to the G20 mandating the FSB to analyze potential regulatory issues posed by global stablecoins and to advise on multilateral responses. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by July 15, 2020. The FSB's final report is expected to be published in October 2020. (See Article)

On 4 May 2020, the European Banking Authority (“EBA”) published a final report containing guidelines (EBA/GL/2020/04) (the “Guidelines”) on the use of the weighted average maturity approach (“WAM”) instead of the final legal maturity approach when calculating contractual payments due under the tranche of a securitisation transaction. (See Article)

In addition to the Economic Stabilization Fund (Wirtschaftsstabilisierungsfonds; “WSF“; see the summary by McDermott (German only)), which was established by the German federal legislator, the Bavarian legislator has decided to establish a Bavaria Fund (BayernFonds) to help stabilize companies in the Federal State of Bavaria. The law on the Bavaria Fund and the Bavarian Finance Agency (BayernFonds- und Finanzagentur-Gesetz; “BayFoG”) was announced in the Bavarian Law and Ordinance Gazette on 30 April 2020 and came into force on 1 May 2020. The Bavaria Fund has no legal capacity and is managed by the Bavarian Finance Agency GmbH (Bayerische Finanzagentur GmbH), whose sole shareholder is the Federal State of Bavaria... (See Article)

- EC extends the Temporary State Aid Framework to allow member states to provide recapitalizations to companies adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including airlines, retailers and firms active in hospitality, leisure and transport. - Governments can now more readily acquire equity in strategically important companies—such as those active in energy, aviation, critical technology, bioscience, pharmaceuticals, defence, transport and aerospace—to protect and support their critical contributions and stave off advances from foreign acquirers. - Recapitalizations are subject to strict conditions, including as regards its necessity, the member state’s remuneration, its exit from the investment and governance of the beneficiary company (including bans on management bonus payments, dividends and certain investments)... (See Article)

Approaching its second anniversary this month, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has never been as relevant as in these unprecedented COVID-19 times. While several countries are considering the implementation of contact tracing apps, a consensus has seemed to surface on subjecting their use to a voluntary basis. The notion of “consent” remains therefore the cornerstone (albeit not the only one) of the European data protection framework. (See Article)

With regard to short selling, or more precisely, net short positions, two sets of measures have been taken: lowering of thresholds (a) and prohibitions (b). These measures are based on the provisions of Articles 20 and 28 of the Regulation of 14 March 2012 (Regulation (EU) No 236/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps) which relate to the powers of intervention of national authorities (Article 20) and ESMA (Article 28) in the event of exceptional circumstances. Please see Publication below for more information. (See Article)

The Situation: The European Union ("EU") is on track to adopt the Taxonomy Regulation by the end of 2020, a key pillar of both the EU Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth and the European Green Deal. The Result: The Taxonomy Regulation will require significant new disclosures and technical screening for covered entities in virtually all areas of the economy. (See Article)