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On 26 February 2025, the European Commission adopted the Omnibus Simplification Package, aimed at reducing regulatory burdens related to sustainability reporting for European companies. This initiative amends several key directives, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the EU Taxonomy Regulation.
These proposals aim to streamline reporting obligations, enhance competitiveness and adjust the scope and timelines of existing regulations.

Digital transformation has become a priority for all major companies. This is being driven only further by the spread of artificial intelligence’s commercial use cases and ever-tightening data protection and cybersecurity regulations. However, procuring enterprise software (concerning both the development of custom-made software and “off-the-shelf” software developed for mass use) may give rise to various legal issues. Promptly identifying and addressing these issues can help prevent considerable legal and operational expenses, as well as other inconveniences.

The Court of Appeal has held that dismissing an employee for a social media post expressing gender critical beliefs and beliefs on same sex marriage was disproportionate, and therefore discriminatory. This decision confirms the legal tests for balancing conflicting protected beliefs, underscoring the basic principle that employees have the right to manifest their religious or philosophical beliefs, subject only to limited, objectively justifiable exceptions. While the post was arguably offensive to some gay and/or trans people, expressing a protected belief that is offensive to others does not by itself justify disciplinary action; there must be something objectively objectionable in the manner of expression. This is a high threshold; merely “intemperate” language is not sufficient.

On 18 July 2024, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the findings of its multi-firm review on firms’ treatment of politically exposed persons (PEPs). This review is likely to be of interest to family offices and their advisers for the following reasons:
• UBOs of family offices are often treated as being within the scope of the PEP categorization.
• An overly restrictive approach to KYC and AML controls on the part of financial institutions can create friction and delays for family offices and their UBOs, and the FCA’s findings may provide some basis to push back on or query the approach on this point (see below).
• Given the FCA’s strong public stance on the PEP issue, we may see other global regulators following the UK’s lead in the future.

Directive (EU) 2022/2555 on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union (“NIS2 Directive”) entered into force on 16 January 2023. It had to be transposed into national law by 17 October 2024. Only a small number of member states (among them Hungary, Belgium and Croatia) have transposed the provisions of the NIS2 Directive into national law so far, and it is likely that a significant number of member states will need some time.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, commonly known as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), represents a significant step forward in enhancing the digital resilience of the financial sector within the European Union. Adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 14 December 2022, DORA aims to establish a comprehensive framework to ensure that financial entities can withstand, respond to, and recover from all types of ICT-related disruptions and threats. The regulation entered into force on 17 January 2025, and applies directly across all EU member states.

The Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) is an intermediary step for Ukraine to benefit from the mutual recognition of product quality between the EU and Ukraine until our country becomes a full EU Member State. The ACAA covers 27 groups of industrial goods/technical regulations. Ukraine’s ACAA implementation plan was sequenced in priority sectors to allow a step-by-step sectoral implementation of the ACAA.

On 23 January 2025, the Luxembourg parliament adopted draft Bill No. 8053 (“Law”), transposing Directive (EU) 2019/2121 on cross-border conversions, mergers and divisions, commonly known as the Mobility Directive, into Luxembourg law.
This Law introduces significant changes to Luxembourg’s legal framework on corporate conversions, mergers and divisions, particularly for cross-border operations within the European Economic Area (EEA), while providing certain clarifications on domestic and non-EEA cross-border transactions, which are otherwise maintained.

On 27 January 2025, the law deriving from draft Bill No. 7961 (“Law”) introducing significant changes to the laws governing the Register of Beneficial Owners (Registre des Bénéficiaires Effectifs (RBE)) and the Trade and Companies Register (Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés) was published in the Luxembourg official journal.
These changes align with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 22 November 2022, aiming to balance transparency for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism purposes with enhanced privacy protections.

The European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass was published on 29 January 2025. It sets forth the European Commission’s priorities for the next five years with a clear ambition to make Europe a leader in future technologies, services, and clean products. The policy priorities are defined around three pillars: (i) Innovation, (ii) Decarbonization and (iii) Security.