Since 19 July 2024, companies operating in the Czech Republic have faced significant changes in their legal obligations when undergoing mergers, spin-offs and other transformations. The new legislation follows the EU Directive on cross-border conversions, mergers, and demergers. It aims to streamline the transformation process, reduce administrative costs and bureaucratic burdens.
The Grand-Ducal Regulation of 25 October 2024 (GDR) introduced new accounting thresholds in Luxembourg, aligning with Delegated Directive (EU) 2023/2775, which was adopted on 17 October 2023.
This measure aims to increase the accounting thresholds applicable to companies and groups in response to the inflation observed between 2013 (adoption of the 2013 EU Accounting Directive) and 2023, and to reduce administrative burdens for businesses.
For that purpose, the GDR amends the provisions of the Luxembourg law on commercial companies dated 10 August 1915 as amended and the Luxembourg law on the register of commerce and companies and accounting dated 19 December 2002 as amended.
On 13 December 2024, the new Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR) will finally apply in all EU Member States, replacing the current Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety.
The GPSR addresses risks related to new technologies and online trading, covering a wide range of products. It represents the most comprehensive reform of European product safety law in over 20 years and will impact most economic operators (manufacturers, importers, distributors, fulfillment service providers, etc.) in the EU market.
On 1 November 2024, the Swedish Competition Authority has started applying its statement regarding free access to procurement documents. This means that contracting authorities are now, according to the Swedish Competition Authority, expected to make standard contracts such as AB04 and ABT06 available free of charge to tenderers in all public procurement processes.
The recently published OECD survey involving 43 member countries found that less than half of the countries require the publication of drug list prices, while the remaining countries are affected by legal and/or contractual constraints that prevent the publication of drug price information.
EU Regulation 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence has the aim to introduce strict rules for the design, implementation and placing on the market of Artificial Intelligence systems, to be applied both to suppliers established in European territory and to suppliers established outside the European Union.
The European Council adopted the new Product Liability Directive on 10 October 2024, and it is now awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. From its entry into force, member states will have two years to transpose it into their national law. The new directive derogates Directive 85/374/CEE. Considering the current context in which digitalization and business models based on sustainability and the circular economy are booming, it was crucial to carry out an update of the rules governing the civil liability of manufacturers and other operators of defective products.
The new EU Capital Requirements Directive establishes a new harmonized and more restrictive framework for cross-border banking and lending into the EU. The new third country branch rules will prohibit the provision of certain banking services into the EU on a cross-border basis by firms outside the EU, unless done in accordance with limited exemptions.
Through Decree No. 780/2024, published in the Official Gazette on 2 September 2024 (“Decree”), Regulatory Decree No. 206/2017 and its subsequent modifications (“Regulatory Decree”) of Law on Access to Public Information No. 27275 (“Law”) have been amended. The Decree introduces the following amendments to the Regulatory Decree of the Law, among others:
• The Decree delimits the scope of the definitions of (i) public information, which does not include private data or data that is not of public interest; and (ii) document, which is limited to any record generated, controlled or held within the framework of the state activity and excludes preparatory deliberations and working papers.
• The Decree regulates the formal requirements for information requests.
Legal action against sustainability or green claims (‘greenwashing’) is on the rise. Consumers and NGOs are increasingly seeking out legal avenues to hold companies accountable for allegedly misleading advertisements on sustainability. One of these avenues in the Netherlands is the Advertising Code Committee (ACC), which regularly handles complaints on greenwashing and other potential misleading statements.