News

07.03.2024 - Alliance: Telemedicine worldwide- legal aspects and challenges

With telemedicine / remote treatment, healthcare medical services are provided by means of audiovisual communication technologies over geographical or temporal distances. Telemedicine is diverse and can be provided both in regional rural care or across countries as well as in the specialised care of rare diseases or by specialists that are not available everywhere. Especially after the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has increased in importance.

20.02.2024 - Alliance: International remote work- tax implications for companies and employees

In our rapidly evolving global labour landscape, remote work has become a central theme and a defining feature of the modern workforce. This newsletter looks at the subtleties of cross-border remote working from a tax perspective and examines the complex considerations that need to be borne in mind by both employers and employees. We address the tax implications of cross-border work and cover topics such as tax residency, double taxation agreements, permanent establishments and income tax deduction obligations.

27.10.2023 - Alliance: New alliance office in Ankara

We are pleased to announce that SCWP Schindhelm Services SE, alliance of European business law firms, has opened a new office  in Ankara. Our 230 lawyers at 32 locations in 14 countries will thus support you with international  competence, commitment and valuable local experience in every one of your projects.

GEMS Schindhelm's new office in Ankara was opened on 01.10.2023 and is headed by GEMS Schindhelm attorney at law and partner Gürkan Erdebil, LL.M. and attorney at law and partner Emre Kurt, LL.M.. Their practice focuses on IP / IT, corporate law / M&A, litigation / dispute resolution, white collar crime / compliance, real estate law, employment law, copyright & unfair competition, and aviation & transport law.

21.09.2023 - Alliance: Legally compliant whistleblowing in your company - country update

Most countries of the European Union have already transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law within their legal systems. There are some legal differences in how the Whistleblower Directive has been transposed into the various laws.

14.06.2023 - Alliance: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

The directive on sustainability reporting (EU) 2022/2464, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, abbreviated “CSRD”) leads to an expansion of the reporting obligation for thousands of companies throughout Europe, starting from financial year 2024, for reports published in 2025. The CSRD amends the existing directive on non-financial reporting and establishes both more detailed reporting obligations, on the one hand, and a larger circle of companies required to issue such reports on the other.

12.06.2023 - Alliance: Transfer Pricing - General Overview 2023

Transfer pricing plays an essential role in all jurisdictions, as it determines a large part of the profits of related parties, which entails a significant amount of income taxes that may be imposed on them. In this first Schindhelm Alliance tax newsletter we give you a general overview of the subject and then report on the specifics in some of the main jurisdictions in which our Alliance operates.

19.05.2023 - Alliance: New regulatory hurdles in M&A transactions

In the case of M&A transactions, all participants strive for a quick closing and thus legal certainty in the future. Previously, an M&A transaction was checked ex ante by the responsible competition authorities if certain turnover thresholds were exceeded to determine whether the project would create or strengthen a dominant position. However, this legal certainty is now lost due to the most recent practice and case law of the European Court of Justice (hereinafter referred to as “ECJ”), since, even if the turnover thresholds are not met, there is the possibility of an ex post content review and, if necessary, a reversal obligation.

03.04.2023 - Italy: Holiday Properties - Taxes & Inheritance: Italy

The decision to purchase a holiday home is often made on a wave of emotion, with the exuberance of great memories of a beautiful summer holiday. But however enthusiastic you are about the beauty of your home and its area, it is important to also keep an eye on the costs in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on leading to “buyer’s remorse”. These start with the ancillary costs of the actual purchase and can continue until the inheritance tax in the case of an inheritance.

In the following article, we review the costs you need to take into account for Italy as they occur on the purchase of the property, during its ongoing use, on its sale or transfer as a gift, or even in the event of inheritance.

03.04.2023 - Spain: Holiday Properties - Taxes & Inheritance: Spain

The decision to purchase a holiday home is often made on a wave of emotion, with the exuberance of great memories of a beautiful summer holiday. But however enthusiastic you are about the beauty of your home and its area, it is important to also keep an eye on the costs in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on leading to “buyer’s remorse”. These start with the ancillary costs of the actual purchase and can continue until the inheritance tax in the case of an inheritance.

In the following article, we review the costs you need to take into account for Spain as they occur on the purchase of the property, during its ongoing use, on its sale or transfer as a gift, or even in the event of inheritance.

03.04.2023 - Turkey: Holiday Properties - Taxes & Inheritance: Turkey

The decision to purchase a holiday home is often made on a wave of emotion, with the exuberance of great memories of a beautiful summer holiday. But however enthusiastic you are about the beauty of your home and its area, it is important to also keep an eye on the costs in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on leading to “buyer’s remorse”. These start with the ancillary costs of the actual purchase and can continue until the inheritance tax in the case of an inheritance.

In the following article, we review the costs you need to take into account for Turkey as they occur on the purchase of the property, during its ongoing use, on its sale or transfer as a gift, or even in the event of inheritance.

13.03.2023 - Alliance: Legally compliant whistleblowing in your company - country update

“Whistleblowing” describes the uncovering of abuses, such as corruption, money laundering, and environmental hazards, by whistleblowers who have acquired insider knowledge due to their professional activity. Whistleblowers must usually accept serious personal or professional disadvantages as a result of their reports.

To protect whistleblowers, the EU already issued the Whistleblowing Directive in 2019. This directive stipulates that enterprises have the obligation to establish channels and procedures to enable reports of abuses and breaches of the law.

13.02.2023 - Alliance: Foreign Subsidies Regulation: How will new regulation impact and reshape the M&A and public tender offers market?

On 12 January 2023 the Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (hereinafter: the “FSR Regulation”) has entered into force.

The FSR Regulation, which will apply from 12 July 2023, equips the European Commission (hereinafter: the “Commission”) with new tools preventing distortion in competition of the internal (EU) market resulting from “foreign subsidies” meaning subsidies granted by the non-EU states to the entities operating on the internal market.

31.01.2023 - Alliance: The end of trust-based working hours? Practical effects of the decision of the BAG dated 13/09/2022

With a judgment from 2019, the ECJ had clearly set the direction: From the Working Hours Directive in conjunction with Art. 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR), there is the obligation of the Member States to ensure that employers introduce an “objective, reliable and accessible system that can be used to measure the daily working hours worked by employees”; this follows from the right of employees to effective health protection and compliance with the legally prescribed (weekly and daily) maximum working hours. However, the ECJ had not set a specific deadline for the Member States.

Over three full years, the requirements of the ECJ then remained without any significant practical consequences, with a few exceptions that we will present below on a country-specific basis. And it was probably generally assumed that legislative intervention would be required for the practical implementation of the judgment. However, the German Federal Labour Court has now taken the ball directly and formulated directly from existing law specific obligations incumbent on the employer even without legislative measures.

17.11.2022 - Alliance: Is your company a "Gatekeeper"? Digital Markets Act News

The applicable e-commerce policy is over 20 years old. That is why the European Union launched a regulatory package for online platforms a few years ago.

02.11.2022 - Legally compliant whistleblowing in your company - country update in Czech Republic

In November of 2022, the government of the Czech Republic passed an amended draft of the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers (the “Whistleblowing Act”) and forwarded it to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament. The draft law is currently in its second reading, and further discussion of the law in the Chamber of Deputies is not planned until after 14 March 2023. The draft law must then be passed by the Senate and needs to be signed by the President of the Czech Republic. Only then will the legislative procedure be completed.

19.10.2022 - Alliance: Remote Work: Revolution in the labour market through hybrid forms of working

Working from home, New Work, flexibility, self-organisation, trust-based working hours. These (and other) terms describe what is no longer a vision of the future or a mere phenomenon. Day-to-day working life has fundamentally changed in the last two and a half years at the latest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which acted as a catalyst in this respect.

22.09.2022 - Alliance: A bird's eye view of the law: The commercial use of unmanned aircraft

The development and commercialisation of drones is making relentless progress. Due to the wide range of applications and the rapid technical advances, unmanned aircraft – or “UAS” (=Unmanned Aircraft System) for short – are predicted to be a promising future.

01.09.2022 - The end of trust-based working hours in the Czech Republic?

Within the meaning of the Czech Labour Code, the employer is obliged to keep the evidence of working hours for all employees, namely with the start and end of the shift performed, overtime, night work and on-call duty.

05.07.2022 - Alliance: What to do if the company is hacked? Actions from a legal perspective.

In case of a hacking attack, unauthorised attackers attempt to access external PCs, notebooks, smartphones, tablets or even entire corporate networks. Since the frequency of such attacks has increased massively in Europe over the past year, in this article we look at the successful hacker attack from the outside, which encrypts the affected systems in such a way that the company can no longer access its system at all.

19.06.2022 - Alliance: New opportunities and threats in sales: revised Vertical Block Exemption Regulation 2022 in force.

The European Commission’s Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“VBER”), which was previously potentially applicable to distribution, whereby agreements between manufacturers or suppliers and retailers are exempt from the ban on cartels, ceased to be in force on 31/05/2022, because the original period of validity of 12 years was reached.
These new versions bring some changes which relax requirements compared to the previous legal situation, but also tighten requirements, which primarily take into account the area of tension between online/offline sales.

23.05.2022 - Digital Revolution & Legal Evolution – copyright and related IP rights in the digital domestic market

Cryptocurrency, big data, artificial intelligence, data theft, cloud, virtual, augmented, or mixed reality, cyber warfare, telemedicine, social media, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, Criminal Law 4.0, NFTs – these are not the only issues that are bringing about the era of the fourth so-called digital revolution. Each of these digital changes is bringing new challenges to all facets of society – the link between law and technology is one of the biggest. An example that illustrates the special relationship between legal and digital technologies very well are NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

14.04.2022 - Alliance: The current turning point – Force Majeure and loss of the basis for business

The "current turning point" in connection with the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has not only a political but also perhaps an even greater economic dimension. The sharp rise in the price of raw materials and energy has led to a dramatic increase in costs for companies. The interruption of supply chains often causes production downtimes in industry. Despite all the harmonisation of laws that has taken place in the last 20 to 30 years, especially in the European legal sphere, this issue has remained untouched by efforts at legal standardisation. The reason for this was apparently a lack of topicality. Therefore, with this article, we provide an overview of how this topic is handled legally with regard to three key questions in the respective countries of our partner law firms.

01.03.2022 - The commercial use of unmanned aircraft in the Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, no separate laws were adopted, and the new EU regulations were implemented by adapting the laws already in place. Perhaps the biggest change from the previous legal situation is the obligation to register. The registration requirement applies to all operators of unmanned aircraft systems whose operation poses risks to the privacy, health, protection of personal data, protection against unlawful acts, or the environment.

09.02.2022 - Alliance: The Digital Service Act and the upcoming reform of the digital services

Already in 2020, the European Commission presented the draft for a new EU regulation on a single market for digital services, through which the latest developments in the field of digital services are to be incorporated and regulated at EU level. The proposal aims at better protection of consumer rights in the digital environment and at the joint internal market-related enforcement potential of the EU Member States.

07.01.2022 - Alliance: New alliance office in Bodrum

We are pleased to announce that SCWP Schindhelm Services SE, alliance of European business law firms, has opened a new office in Bodrum. Our 230 lawyers at 31 locations in 14 countries will thus support you with international competence, commitment and valuable local experience in every one of your projects.
 

03.01.2022 - Digital Revolution & Legal Evolution in the Czech Republic

The amendment of the Copyright Act implementing the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has reached the Chamber of Representatives of the Czech Parliament. This is currently being discussed in the responsible committees and the plenary of the Chamber of Representatives. The President’s final signature is expected for Autumn 2022. The basic protection of copyright (and thus the protection of authors of works against computer piracy) in criminal law is guaranteed by Act No. 40/2009 Coll., the Criminal Code.

01.01.2022 - Force Majeure and loss of the basis for business in the Czech Republic

According to the rules of the Czech Civil Code, in the event of a material change of circumstances, each party has the right to demand that the other party resume negotiations on the contract already concluded. However, the prerequisite for such a step is that such a change represents a particularly gross disproportion in the rights and obligations of the parties by disadvantaging one of them either through a disproportionate increase in the cost of performance or through a disproportionate reduction in the value of performance.

01.10.2021 - Alliance: New alliance office in Imola

We are pleased to announce that SCWP Schindhelm Services SE, alliance of European business law firms, has opened a new office in Imola. Our 230 lawyers at 30 locations in 14 countries will thus support you with international  competence, commitment and valuable local experience in every one of your projects.

21.09.2021 - Alliance: Justitia 4.0 – the pros and cons of digital court proceedings and notarial records

The contact restrictions introduced to contain the coronavirus pandemic have led to considerable upheavals in legal practice in many European Union countries. In particular for the areas of forensic activity and the creation of notarial documents, the irrevocable principle of attendance in person has continued to apply practically without restriction disregarding the progress in communication made possible by progressing digitalisation - whether it is to be able to get a personal picture of the parties (court proceedings), whether it is to confirm the personal identity of the persons appearing without doubt (notarial documents).

15.03.2021 - Justitia 4.0 – the pros and cons of digital court proceedings and notarial records in the Czech Republic

Until recently, the digitalisation of the justice system in the Czech Republic had no priority. However, the coronavirus pandemic has required a change in the current procedure both in court matters and in notarial matters. The necessary amendments to the law have already been made, but have not been applied in practice yet; the digitalisation of justice is expected to be completed by 2024.

15.12.2020 - Schindhelm Brexperts – your contact for all Brexit related legal issues

Together with its cooperation partners in the UK, the Schindhelm Alliance has an international team of lawyers with many years of experience in supporting international companies in the UK market and who develop effective tailor-made solutions to all Brexit-related legal issues.

22.11.2019 - Austria: Even more transparency for transparent companies

State and corporate compliance obligations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing remain an utmost priority for EU member states. Companies (“legal entities”) have therefore been obliged to disclose their “beneficial owners”, among other things, for quite some time. In Austria, a separate database - the “Beneficial Owners Register” - was set up for this purpose. In course of the implementation of the 5th EU Money Laundering Directive, further tightening measures have now been adopted.

22.11.2019 - Europe: Implementation of the EU trade secrets directive

The new “Law on Trade Secrets” now implements the so-called “EU Trade Secrets Directive”. This adopts the European legal requirements for the protection of confidential know-how and secret business information. Moreover, the new legal provisions contain limitation periods and important procedural provisions for the protection of trade secrets in court proceedings.

22.11.2019 - Europe: Liability of the operator of a website for the Facebook “Like Button”

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently ruled on the long-discussed question of whether and how website operators can integrate the Facebook Like button (so-called “social plug-in”) in accordance with data protection requirements.Th ECJ’s investigation results from a legal dispute between the Consumer Association of North Rhine-Westphalia and a subsidiary of Peek & Cloppenburg KG.

22.11.2019 - Italy: The new law on corporate crises as a “work in progress”

A new law on company crises has significantly changed the rules applicable to limited liability companies in this respect Among other things, the liability of the company’s management was tightened. Furthermore, the tasks of the supervisory body were expanded. The reform’s true impact remains to be seen: Will there be a change in corporate culture or will there be an increase in corporate crises?

22.11.2019 - Slovakia: New law on whistleblowing

“Whistleblower” - people who point out violations of the law - will be protected even more in the future. This is the aim of a new law that came into force a few months ago. The new regulation adds to already existing provisions on the protection of whistleblowers in the employment relationship.

22.11.2019 - Turkey: Changes in subsidy law

State aid is granted on the basis of various criteria. The region or the economic sector in which the investment is made is decisive, but also the strategic importance of the investment and the level of the investment volume. Investments in structurally weak regions receive higher subsidies than investments in industrial areas. For the award of grants, a distinction is made between six different regions.

22.11.2019 - Austria: On the termination of the lease due to considerably detrimental use

According to Sec. 1118 ABGB (Austrian Civil Code), the lessor can terminate a lease unilaterally prematurely if the lessee makes a “considerably detrimental use” of the leased object. The scope and content of these legal provisions is a constant source of discussion. The mere performance of structural alterations by the lessee without the consent of the lessor does not in itself justify a good cause for the termination of the lease.

25.06.2019 - Turkey: The mandatory mediation procedure in Turkish law - labour law and commercial law suits

Justified by the goal of solving legal disputes in a fast and economical manner without filing lawsuits and thus relieving the overloaded Turkish courts, a mediation procedure is implemented as a mandatory pre-condition for filing a lawsuit according to Turkish labour and commercial law.

25.06.2019 - Spain: Simplification of establishing a company

The law 11/2018 dated 28 December has been in force since the beginning of the year. This selectively modifies the Commercial Code, the Stock Corporation Act and the Law on Auditing.

09.01.2019 - Austria: New protection of business secrets - entrepreneurs must act.

Companies invest in know-how, from which there are important competitive advantages. Valuable information is the currency of the knowledge-based company. Maintaining confidentiality of business secrets is therefore a management instrument for competitiveness and research innovations. The loss of secrets can result in serious consequences, in particular, and generally can no longer be reversed.

22.11.2018 - changes in the payment of sick leave and consequences for the employer

In the Czech Republic, as of 01/07/2019, employees should already be entitled to sick leave from the first day of their inability to work.

22.11.2018 - Turkey: The decree to protect the value of the Turkish currency – limitation of foreign currency and foreign currency indexed contracts

The presidential decree no. 32 issued on 12/09/2018 to protect the value of the Turkish cur-rency ("Decree") sets the limitation of foreign currency and foreign currency indexed contracts and stipulates that these contracts must be converted within 30 days into Turkish Lira (“TL”).

22.11.2018 - Germany: no d&o protection for gmbh managing directors for payments after maturity of insolvency

If a Gmbh makes payments after it becomes insolvent, the Managing Directors are personal-ly liable vis-à-vis the company, regardless of the internal allocation of responsibilities.

28.06.2018 - Austria: E-allocation and safe linking by means of hash value

The electronic transmission of tenders in the award procedure is nothing new and was already standardised in the Federal Procurement Act 2006 both for the classical area and for the area of sector contractors.

28.06.2018 - Bulgaria: New requirements for company sale and insolvency

As in the past, in the case of company sales, the seller has repeatedly neither paid salaries due nor paid social security contributions due for employees, the Bulgarian Commercial Code was amended accordingly by three successive amendments in December 2017, February and March 2018.