News

The EU has adopted the twelfth package of sanctions against Russia. After several weeks of negotiations, the EU - in close cooperation with its G7 partners - has in particular imposed additional import and export bans against Russia, sanctioned more than 140 additional individuals and taken further measures to combat the circumvention of sanctions. Read Stephan Mueller and Mareike Heesing's article to find out what companies now need to bear in mind.

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The European legal framework for due diligence obligations in supply chains has been finalised. The EU member states and the EU Parliament's chief negotiators have agreed on key points for a directive on supply chain compliance (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive/ CSDDD or CS3D for short), which was still subject to approval by the Parliament and the mem-ber states.

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Find out more about our IT law & data protection practice group - now regularly summarised for you at a glance! Enjoy reading!

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In our last issue of this year's Focus on Labour Law you will find the usual overview of the most important labour court decisions of recent months, the minimum wage that will apply from 1 January 2024 and the social security calculation parameters that will apply next year.

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Oppenhoff elected Holger Hofmann (Public Commercial Law, Public Procurement Law) as an equity partner with effect from 1 January 2024. Alexandra Groth (Labour Law) was appointed partner and Dr Johannes Kaesbach (Labour Law) and Tobias Kollakowski (IT Law & Data Protection; Legal Tech) were promoted to junior partners.

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Cartels have long since ceased to be forged exclusively at highway service stations. Back in 2017, we highlighted the effects of digitalization on antitrust compliance in an article ("Antitrust law 4.0"). Since then, there have been several cases of "digital collusion" that have been taken up by antitrust authorities worldwide and in some cases also sanctioned (see, for example, the article Dohrn/Reinhold, "Collusion by Code": Challenges for antitrust compliance, in Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb, Issue 10, p. 540 et seq.). This last article in our "Digital Compliance" series is dedicated to digital antitrust compliance in the form of so-called "antitrust screening tools". The article describes how they work and provides an outlook on (future) areas of application in cartel prevention and the repressive processing and prosecution of cartels.

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In the last three articles of our "Digital Compliance" series, we explained the benefits and risks of using software-based compliance tools under aspects of data protection law and sanctions compliance. In this article, we are now taking a look at the benefits and risks of such software-based compliance tools from a labour law perspective.

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In a world filled with new challenges, Germany faces the task of remaining competitive in an in-ternational comparison. An attractive capital market is a key factor for facilitating investment in innovative developments and technological progress. Access to the capital market is therefore being simplified, particularly for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, companies will benefit from new tax regulations governing employee participation schemes in the competition for international skilled labour. Last Friday, the Bundestag passed the draft bill on the "Financing of Investments to Secure the Future" (so-called Financing for the Future Act [Zukunftsfinanzierungsgesetz, ZuFinG]). Alexandra Groth, Hanjo Prondzinski and Robert Fischer-Sonnberg explain the innovations and opportunities arising from the Financing for the Future Act:

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Oppenhoff has taken first place in the iurratio Awards 2024 as "Best Employer for Career Entry in the Area of Health & Work-Life Balance".

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Oppenhoff has advised RE.LION.BAT. Circular GmbH, a joint venture between the DEPPE Group and Fahrzeug-Werke LUEG AG, on the construction of the largest European battery recycling plant in Meppen, Emsland.

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Oppenhoff has advised portfolio companies of the Munich-based private equity firm Family Trust Investor on two buy & build acquisitions.

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Oppenhoff has advised ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG on the acquisition of Go-Ahead Verkehrsgesellschaft Deutschland GmbH and all of its German subsidiaries from the British Go-Ahead Group.

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Oppenhoff has advised John Cloppenburg, a co-partner of Peek & Cloppenburg KG, Düsseldorf, on its insolvency in self-administration. P&C had been in self-administration since 1 June 2023.

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Find out more about our IT law & data protection practice group - now regularly summarised for you at a glance! Enjoy reading!

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Oppenhoff advised US based StatLab Medical Products group on the acquisition of all shares in Waldemar Knittel Glasbearbeitungs GmbH. With this acquisition, StatLab is continuing its global expansion strategy to support the goal of providing the most stable supply chain of high-quality products for laboratories around the world.

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Oppenhoff has advised listed Hawesko Group on the acquisition of a 50% stake in the Baltic Dunker Group. Hawesko is thus intensifying its international business activities by entering the Baltic market.

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Impressive innovations are anticipated in the metaverse and are thus causing an extraordinary stir in a multitude of areas of life. In the meantime, hardly any other field of law has to deal with various realities of life as comprehensively and in depth as tax law. It is only logical that this gives rise to diverse challenges for companies that are present in the metaverse.

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We last provided an overview of the current status of the diesel scandal back in September 2021 and showed that the legal process is still ongoing even years after public disclosure of the allegations. Several things have happened since then, but the "Dieselgate" chapter is still far from closed. The courts have recently issued landmark decisions on both consumer law issues and capital market law claims.

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Professional e-sports players are usually employees - but what protection do they have? Do forms of ordinary and extraordinary dismissals also exist in e-sports? What rules apply here? In our fourth and last article in our series on gaming and e-sports, Dr. Alexander Willemsen takes a look at the peculiarities of dismissals in the e-sports sector.

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From 1 October 2023, importers of CO2-intensive goods will be required to submit a quarterly report to the European Commission on the CO2 emissions caused by the production of the imported goods. Companies will have to submit their first report by 31 January 2024 at the latest.

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Oppenhoff has comprehensively advised the building technology installations specialist Christ & Wirth Haustechnik GmbH on the acquisition of Möller Klima-Kälte GmbH. It is the first add-on for Christ & Wirth Haustechnik.

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In order to optimise players' performance and game behaviour, it is already common practice in physical sports to process performance data generated during training. This phenomenon is also evident in the field of e-sports, where it is particularly easy to collect and process extensive per-formance data as the performance is rendered digitally. We explain below whether the processing of this performance data is legally permissible and why there are different permissions for differ-ent types of processed data.

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In view of the constantly growing variety of games and tournaments in e-sports, the number of new e-sports players is also increasing rapidly. Each e-sports player has their own specific idea of what position they would like to take in the world of e-sports. These ideas can be realised in the best possible way with the right choice of legal form. With this in mind, we are providing a guide to distinguishing between unsuitable and more useful legal forms, which is tailored to the individual goals and needs of e-sports.

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As already announced, our series of articles on e-sports and gaming starts this week. In this connection, we will be answering legal questions from the areas of competition, corporate, data protection and labour law. Dr. Patric Mau is kicking off the event. He will explain the legal situation and the claims under trademark law arising from trading in payment methods. If a distortion of competition is to be prevented and fair competition guaranteed, the question arises as to whether game developers are entitled to claim the abatement of and injunctive relief against the sale of soft currencies via third-party trading platforms.

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In our third issue, we are once again giving you an insight into the most recent important legislative developments as well as further important rulings of the labour courts. We report on the ECJ’s decisions on the topics #mass dismissals, the #Bureaucracy Relief Act passed in August and its relevance to labour law, as well as the new Further Education Act.

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