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“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.

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.

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.

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.

In Germany, the draft of the Whistleblower Protection Act was adopted by the Bundestag at the end of last year, after already being delayed for a year. The law should have already been transposed by 17 December 2021 according to the EU Whistleblower Directive on which it is based. Due to this delay, the European Commission has already initiated infringement proceedings against Germany and a suit was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union on 15 February 2023.

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.

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.

Based on its wording, German law only provides for the recording of working hours in certain cases. However, the Federal Labour Court (decision of 13/09/2022) has decided that there is a general obligation to record working hours (i.e. start and end of daily working hours and thus their duration including overtime). In the absence of express legal standardisation of such an obligation, the court derives this from an “EU law-compliant interpretation” of § 3 para. 2 no. 1 ArbSchG (Arbeitsschutzgesetz [Occupational Health and Safety Act]).

In the first half of 2022, the Corona Virus broke out again in many places in China. From early March to early June, the infection numbers in Shanghai had also developed rapidly. For this reason, massive lockdown measures were issued by the local government, which resulted in the closure of almost all companies in Shanghai. After the lockdown was released, general support policies have now been introduced in various regions, including Shanghai, which include rent reduction/exemption measures for locally based companies.

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.

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.

We had a visit from the founders of Eskapadia, freifeuer, NeoTaste und peerOS! These four highly interesting start-ups belong to Batch # 1 of the Osnabrück-based start-up accelerator SmartCityHouse. Schindhelm Osnabrück is also part of the SmartCityHouse’s advisor team.

Vorlage des Niedersächsischen Finanzgerichts an das Bundesverfassungsgericht

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).

On May 2, 2022, an announcement was published by the relevant authority in Shanghai regarding the requirements and conditions that companies in Shanghai must meet in order to resume work and production under the current lockdown.

On April 28 of 2022, Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau – in coordination with Shanghai High People's Court – has issued regulation on handling labor disputes involving epidemics. This relates first and foremost to the regulation of salary payments during the continuing lockdown in Shanghai.

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.

If you want to help on a long term basis, you should think about founding an association. The legal hurdles for this can be overcome and the legal form has the advantage that receipts can be issued to donors if the association is non-profit. Finally, no significant start-up capital is required for founding an association.

In Germany, the regulations for private and commercial use of drones can be found in Section 5a “Operation of unmanned aircraft” of the Air Transport Regulations, more precisely in Sections 21 a et seq. of the LuftVO (Luftverkehrs-Ordnung [Air Traffic Regulations]). Due to the priority of application of EU regulations, the LuftVO was adapted to EU law in the relevant areas from July 2021. In addition, the EU Drone Regulation 2019/947 applies in all other points.

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.

Measures against computer piracy are regulated at two levels, a civil and a criminal level. However, the regulations are in the same law: the German Copyright Act. On the one hand, the unauthorised exploitation of copyrighted works, e.g., by copying or making available for download, constitutes a copyright infringement, which can be given a formal warning in accordance with § 97 para. 1 UrhG (Urhebergesetz [Copyright Act]).

Under German law, the right to adjust the contractual relationship up to and including withdrawal from the contract as a whole follows the principles developed for cessation of the basis of the contract. The basis of the transaction is, roughly speaking, the mutually recognisable ideas of motives, conditions and circumstances that existed at the time of conclusion of the contract. According to the principle that contracts must be fulfilled (pacta sunt servanda), such adjustments or terminations of contractual relationships can only be considered in absolutely exceptional cases.

From 1 January 2022, foreign nationals will no longer enjoy a general tax exemption for allowances for housing costs, language courses and education costs for children.

ECJ, judgment of 16.07.2020 C-311/18 ("Schrems II")

Data transfers from the EU to the US have always been a difficult process from a legal point of view. The ECJ has now struck down a data privacy pack used to establish an adequate level of data protection – the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Shield.

Currently, we only have one dominating topic – COVID-19 and its global spread. In that respect, many questions of employers and employers with respect to the protection of personal data arise. Please find our summary of the FAQs below.

Q&A on Labor Issues which may arise during the New Corona Virus epidemic prevention and control period.

On 01.01.2020 the new location of Schindhelm Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH has opened its doors in Frankfurt. The head of the new office in the German commercial metropolis is Schindhelm counsel and partner Dr. Karolin Nelles LL.M.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

“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.

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.

Schindhelm held a workshop on Thursday, November 7th, 2019 on the topic "Investment in Germany " organized and hosted by the German Centre for Industry and Trade Taicang.

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.

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.

It is the first anniversary of the GDPR. After a stressful finish to May 25, 2018 we were all excited to learn how the authorities would enforce this law which fundamentally changed the rules of data processing within the European Union.

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.

The EU Directive on the regulation of confidential know-how and business information (know-how directive) was implemented in Hungary in July 2018.

When a new shareholder list must be submitted in the commercial register due to a change, it must satisfy the requirements of § 40 I GmbHG [Limited Liability Companies Act] in the version of 23/06/2017 according to the decision of the BGH [Federal Supreme Court] dated 26/06/2018 – II ZB 12/16.

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.

With the large-scale reform of the company law from the year 2003, Italian legislators had simplified the regulations on the Governance of limited liability companies.

Nestlé is a holder of a 3D EU trademark that corresponds to the "KitKat" bar marketed by it and protects its design.

Throughout Europe, approximately 80% of smartphones are equipped with the Google oper-ating system, Android...

At the end of 2017, in the legal case C-42/17, the ECJ issued a much publicised decision on the question of the primacy of application of Community Law.

In view of the rapid growth of online trade, the Chinese government adopted the first e-commerce law on the comprehensive regulation of online business on 31/08/2018, which will enter into force on 01/01/2019.

Since May 2014, ownership rights for land and soil can only be acquired by natural and legal persons who have resided or been established in Bulgaria for longer than five years.

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”).

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.

The residual debt discharge (RDD) was introduced in 2015 as an exception from the princip-le of general asset liability of the debtor in the insolvency code.

Due to the low unemployment rate in Slovakia, employers have recently been confronted with a lack of available workers.

In Romania, law no. 190/2018, and thus the national implementation of the GDPR, took effect as of 31/07/2018. In comparison with other EU countries, law no. 190/2018 was rather short.

In the business world, situations often arise in which the only existing managing director wants to leave the company.

In the budget planning for 2019, companies should prepare for the expected increase in Po-lish labour costs.

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.

Online platforms and search engines dominate Internet trading. Unilateral business conditions, non-transparent algorithms and rankings are unfortunately not uncommon.

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.

International business transactions often involve cross border transfer of personal data. This is the case for instance where the data is stored on a server located in a third country (a country outside the EEA) or a third country IT service provider has access to the data processed by a company within the EU. If personal data is to be transferred to a third country specific provisions of the GDPR will apply.

As of 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces harsh sanctions for data breaches with extended scope of applicability.Companies and other data processing entities become potential subjects not only to the data subjects’ claims for damages, the enforceability of which has been enhanced, but also to increased administrative fines to be imposed by supervisory authorities.

The General Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR) which will apply from 25th May 2018, introduces the position of the Data Protection Officer (DPO).The DPO shall be the contact person for and shall be involved in all data protection related issues of the given entity. The DPO is an organ within the company which liaises with the authority, the company and the data subjects.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the EU Parliament in 2016 provides a higher standard of protection of personal data for EU citizens. The GDPR will have direct effect in all member states as of May 25, 2018 and it will affect businesses all around the world that are engaged in activities with individuals in the EU.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the EU Parliament in 2016 provides a higher standard of protection of personal data for EU citizens. The GDPR will have direct effect in all member states as of May 25, 2018 and it will affect businesses all around the world that are engaged in activities with individuals in the EU.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU will come into force on 25 May 2018 and it will affect organisations worldwide working with or within the EU. The GDPR promotes accountability and governance. Organisations are required to put into place comprehensive governance measures to ensure compliance. Non-compliance can lead to heavy fines up to EUR 20 million or 4 % of the global annual turnover, whichever is higher.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the EU Parliament in 2016 provides a higher standard of protection of personal data for EU citizens. The GDPR will have direct effect in all member states as of May 25, 2018 and it will affect businesses all around the world that are engaged in activities with individuals in the EU.

Data protection law has been revised throughout the EU. The new regulations will become binding as of 25 May 2018.

On Saturday, 8th of July, the Second Chinese Germany Friendship Cup in table tennis took place in Taicang.

Schindhelm Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH was host to the BVMW (Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft) External Trade Evening, during which in front of 45 interested listeners chances of German small and medium-sized businesses in India were discussed and opportunities to create charitable benefit through CSR-projects were shown by the example of IndienHilfe Deutschland e.V. (IndiaHelp Germany registered society).

The world of e-commerce is divided into two large areas: On the one hand, there are business enterprises which exclusively deal with other business enterprises (B2B); on the other hand, there are those which primarily offer products or services to consumers (B2C).

As early as in February 2016, the German “Act on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Consumer Matters” [Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz - VSBG] implemented into national law the Community “ADR Directive” (Directive 2013/11/EU).

Simultaneously with the 10th anniversary of the Schindhelm Office in Shanghai, Schindhelm Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH opened another office in the city of Taicang, which is located about 50 kilometres away from Shanghai.

The Schindhelm M&A Team Osnabrueck has advised the sole shareholder of a engineering service provider of the automotive industry on ...

The Schindhelm M&A Team Osnabrueck has counseled the management of a company which is dealing with medical products and any other kind of medical interior on the sale of its business operations as well as on the sale of its shares in another company to a strategic follower having a continuation aim with respect to the former business operation.

The Schindhelm M&A Team Osnabrueck has advised the management board of the communication service provider, KiKxxl GmbH, located in Osnabrueck regarding the re-acquisition of 51 percent of its shares from ...

A recent fine of 20 Mio. Euro against a Norwegian salmon breeding and salmon processing company for breaching the prohibition on implementation of the EU-Merger Regulation (ECMR) currently causes a stir in the M & A practice. This case clarifies that ...

A Schindhelm Team has advised the insolvency administrator of ICT Automotive Group in the asset sale process to Korean Dongkook Industry Co. and thereby essentially contributed to the rescue of a large number of Jobs.

In 2007 and 2009 the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) imposed a fine of overall EUR 208 Mio on certain companies involved in the “liquefied gas cartel”.

Under the coordination of Dr. Manuela Hechler, Schindhelm advised the landlord with regard to a long-term tenancy agreement regarding parts of the property at Nikolaiort 3/4 in Osnabrück.

With our newsletter we like to inform you about recent legal updates and practice in China in the future.