News

Since our last Newsletter, the draft law of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs [Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS] on the recording of working hours in Germany has become available. We had already presented the relevant details to you. Reactions from the political and business communities were not long in coming; most recently, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group voiced considerable criticism of the draft. It is expected that the draft law will undergo considerable amendments during the parliamentary procedure and that clear legal requirements for recording working hours will be even longer in coming. Naturally, we will report on this.

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Algorithms and AI have become indispensable in the corporate world. Digital compliance is also becoming increasingly important. We understand this term to mean software-based compliance tools that support or potentially take over the "analogue" compliance work. In a multi-part series of articles, we highlight the advantages, risks and legal guard rails in the use of these compliance programs. In the first part, we offer you an introduction and overview of the exciting topic of "digital compliance". In the following articles, we will take a closer look at important individual aspects such as data protection and labor law issues.

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The EU has adopted its 11th package of sanctions against Russia. The new package is primarily intended to counter circumvention of the restrictive measures already in place. After a reportedly heated debate, the EU has agreed on a new instrument to combat circumvention practices by prohibiting exports to third countries other than Russia. It has, however, not decided on any goods or countries concerned by this new prohibition yet. This new instrument is to be used only if other individual measures and contacts with the countries concerned have no effect. Most of the new provisions entered into force on 23, respectively 24 June 2023.

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Oppenhoff has advised the real estate investment company Dr. Rüger Holding GmbH & Co. KG on the conclusion of a hotel lease agreement with Ennismore Germany GmbH and KNSA Hospitality. The hotel, which will have 146 rooms, will open in Düsseldorf-Friedrichstadt in 2024. It will be the first TRIBE Hotel established by Ennismore in Germany with KNSA.

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Oppenhoff has advised the AustriaEnergy Group together with Simmons & Simmons on the creation and placement of a Green Bond with a target volume of €25 million.

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are used to assign unique digital products to their holders. In 2021, the hype around NFT primarily arose with regard to digital artwork. In March 2021, for example, the artist Beeple put the digital artwork "Everydays: The first 5000 days" up for auction at Christies and sold it for a record sum of over 69 million euros. Since then, NFTs have also become very popular in the metaverse. For example, limited-edition digital clothing for one's own avatar is linked to an NFT and distributed to customers.

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Oppenhoff has once again comprehensively advised the EIC Fund on its investments in Germany. This time, the EIC Fund invested in the biotech start-up CO2BioClean GmbH.

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Oppenhoff has advised the venture capital investor BeyondBuild GmbH on a strategic merger of spaceOS Limited and Equiem Holdings Pty. Ltd. BeyondBuild GmbH is a VC investor that specialises in proptech and was one of the first professional investors in the Warsaw and Dublin-based start-up spaceOS Limited.

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Oppenhoff has provided comprehensive legal advice to the Munich-based private equity investor Family Trust Investor on its investment in Hyla Germany GmbH. Hyla Germany GmbH is the exclusive distribution partner in Germany and Austria of Hyla D.O.O., a manufacturer of high-quality air and room cleaning equipment under the "Hyla" brand.

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Oppenhoff has advised MAI Marketing Automation Intelligence Group GmbH ( MAI Group) on the acquisition of xpose360 GmbH (xpose360), a specialist agency for digital performance marketing. xpose360 will become part of MAI Group as part of the transaction and the existing shareholders of xpose360 will become shareholders in MAI Group.

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The federal and state governments have been able to reach a compromise on the protection of whistleblowers, and today, 12 May 2023, the Bundesrat approved the amended German Whistle-blower Protection Act [Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz, HinSchG].

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Oppenhoff is advising the CEO of Gerry Weber International AG, Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus, on the company’s financial and operational restructuring.

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In its judgment of 4 May 2023, the ECJ (C-300/21) clarified that a non-material claim for damages under data protection law requires proof of specific and causal harm. A materiality threshold for claiming damages in national law is not permissible. The procedural rules for the judicial assess-ment of damages are governed by national law. What partly sounds self-evident has so far been decided inconsistently by German courts and has led to much discussion in the legal literature. Until now, it has been unclear when a non-material claim for damages exists under the GDPR. However, further legal questions on damages remain open.

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Oppenhoff has advised and represented its long-standing client KMW in a dispute concerning statements made by Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall AG. The high-profile proceedings before the Munich I Regional Court concerned how certain statements made by Papperger in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 15 March 2023 were to be understood.

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Following the publication of an initial draft (German version only) by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) about an amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (11th ARC amendment) in September of last year, Germany’s Federal Government on April 5, 2023 passed a corresponding government draft bill (German version only) ("ARC-D") to tighten up the German Competition Act. The supporters of the amendment do not skip using combative metaphors: one speaks of "antitrust law with claws and teeth" or a "competition authority having a punch". We give you an overview of how the lawmaker will sharpen the "teeth" of the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO).

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Last year, the German Federal Fiscal Court [Bundesfinanzhof, BFH] ruled that when companies are transferred to the next generation, an application for so-called full exemption can be made for each individual transferred company (= economic unit). It thus rejected the previous view held by the tax authorities (ruling dated 26 July 2022 - II R 25/20).

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Oppenhoff has advised the BMV Group on its realignment and acquisition of the von den Hoff Group. The von den Hoff companies will be taken over by a newly founded subsidiary, BMV Holding GmbH & Co. KG.

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Oppenhoff has once again comprehensively advised the EIC Fund on its investments in Germany. This time, the EIC Fund invested together with Dieter von Holzbrink Ventures (DvH Ventures) and the Rudolf Fuchs Family Office in a Series A financing round in the tech start-up enote GmbH.

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The Chilean Environmental Impact Assessment Service (“Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental”, SEA) published a 34-page document on 29 March 2023 that sets out new criteria for assessing the environmental impact of green hydrogen production projects.

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Oppenhoff has once again comprehensively advised the EIC Fund on its investments in Germany. This time, the company invested in the tech start-up Nyris GmbH.

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The first two sentences of the draft act amending the energy price brakes published on 5 April 2023 already indicate that this is unlikely to be the last amendment to the Gas and Heat Price Brake Act (Erdgas-Wärme-Preisbremsengesetz, EWPBG) and the Electricity Price Brake Act (Strompreisbremsegesetz, StromPBG). It describes the price brakes as having been "drafted and put into effect in the last quarter of 2022 within a very short time." In light of initial experience gained with the acts’ implementation, "various adjustment requirements, mainly of a technical and editorial nature, have been identified".

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If an employee of a company wishes to obtain information about their processed personal data and the company fails to comply, this can potentially be costly. In this context, the German Federal Labour Court [Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG] was also against an obligation to represent and prove the concrete occurrence of damage in the event of a failure to provide information. A final decision by the ECJ is pending, however. We explain what companies need to watch out for in this connection.

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Oppenhoff has advised the shareholders of Hermann GmbH Maschinenbautechnologie (HemaTec), Germany's leading manufacturer in the field of hydraulic steel engineering, on the investment by the financial investor VORSPRUNG. The sellers are remaining on board and, together with the investor, will expand HemaTec's pioneering role in hydraulic steel engineering.

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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 the industrial insurance broker MRH Trowe on the minority investment by private equity investor TA Associates. The transaction is subject to EU merger control clearance.

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