Durable medium: Conceptual and legal harmonisation
Since the late 1990s, the Belgian legislator has been referring to the notion of ‘durable medium’ in order to indicate a bearer of information. The concept of ‘durable medium’ originally stems from European consumer law[1]. However, various definitions as well as different use cases, often in combination with a link to paper, could be found […]
Philippe De Prez is promoted to Partner in Banking & Digital Finance
Geo-Blocking Regulation – Applicable as from 3 December 2018
It happens that traders, operating in one EU Member State, block or limit access to their websites and applications by customers from other member states who would like to engage in cross-border transactions (a practice called ‘geo-blocking’). This, together with the practice of traders applying different general conditions of access to their goods and services […]
One more step towards the adoption of the new Companies Code
The competent committee of the Parliament adopted the draft new Code of Companies and Associations on second reading. For an outline of the main changes vis-a-vis the existing regulations, you may refer to the slides prepared by Paul Alain Foriers, Partner in our Corporate M&A department and one of the four legal experts appointed by […]
De Rechtbank van Koophandel verschijnt onder een nieuwe naam – Overzicht van de wijzigingen sinds 1 november 2018
Ingevolge de wet van 15 april 2018 houdende hervorming van het ondernemingsrecht, worden sommige wijzigingen betreffende zowel de benaming als de bevoegdheden van de rechtbank van koophandel op 1 november 2018 in werking getreden, waarvan de belangrijkste hieronder worden samengevat. In PDF versie lezen De rechtbank van koophandel wordt de “ondernemingsrechtbank” Artikel 252 van de […]
New rules on public offerings and takeover bids – The law of 11 July 2018 and the Royal Decree of 23 September 2018
Introduction The public offer of investment instruments and their admission to trading on a regulated market used to be governed by the law of 16 June 2006 implementing the Directive 2003/71/EC of 4 November 2003 (the “Law of 2006”). While mandatory disclosure of information is vital to protect investors and constitutes a necessary step towards […]
UBO Register – Sandrine Hirsch speaks at ABF seminar
On Tuesday 23 October, Sandrine Hirsch, Partner in our Corporate M&A department, gave a lecture on the obligations related to the new UBO Register at a workshop organised by the association “Avocats en droit boursier et financier/Advocaten in het beurs- en financieel recht”, in the presence of Mrs Annika Agemans from the SPF Finances/FOD Financiën. Sandrine’s […]
AMLD5 and Cryptocurrencies
Introduction One of the biggest threats associated with virtual currencies (or cryptocurrencies) is their potential use for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes. With the adoption of the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive ( “AMLD5”) on 30 May 2018, the European Union attempts, amongst other things, to address this issue. Senders and recipients of virtual currencies […]
UBO Register – What are the new obligations of Belgian entities?
Update – 4 October 2018 1. The Law of 18 September 2017 implementing the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive of 20 May 2015 (Directive EU 2015/849) has established a register of beneficial owners, namely the “UBO register” (Ultimate Beneficial Ownership). The Royal Decree of 30 July 2018 on the operating procedures of the UBO register has […]
Implementation of the GDPR in Belgium – An overview of the law of 30 July 2018
Following the entry into force of the GDPR on 25 May 2018 (see our news “GDPR – Are you ready?”), the law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, which repeals the law of 8 December 1992, has been published in the Belgian Official […]
Unveiling the new Belgian law on the protection of trade secrets
At last, after roughly two years, the EU Directive 2016/943 (hereinafter: The Directive) of 8 July 2016 has finally been transposed by the long-awaited Belgian Law of 30 July 2018 on the Protection of Trade Secrets (hereinafter: The Law) that entered into force on 24 August 2018. The Law brings clarity, among other things, by […]
FinTech trends – How Belgium & Japan resemble and differ
Numerous articles compare different European countries or compare Europe and the US when it comes to financial regulation, the IPO market or the types of FinTech applications that are easily adopted (or not) by the public. We decided to take a look in a different direction and together with the Japanese law firm Keiwa Sogo […]
