News-Archive

Oppenhoff has elected Lisa Schmitt to junior partner with effect from 1 July 2021.

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Travel has long since ceased to be the sole preserve of people, goods and commodities. Data are also being sent off on their “travels” from A to B. The pandemic has caused passenger travel to be subject to numerous new regulations. New EU standard contractual clauses are also bringing reforms for the "travel" of data to third countries. We are introducing you to the most important new features and simultaneously providing you with the appropriate tool to easily compile the appropriate clauses.

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On 25 June 2021, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act [Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz – LkSG], better known by the less unwieldy term "Supply Chain Act", was also approved by the Bundesrat. Thus, as of 1 January 2023, initially companies with their registered office or a branch office in Germany and over 3,000 domestic employees will be obliged to observe human rights and environmental due diligence obligations in their supply chains in an appropriate manner. From 1 January 2024 onwards, the obligation also extends to companies with over 1,000 employees.

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The Transparency Register is becoming a full register. This results in new notification obligations for many companies - registration in another public register is now no longer sufficient to also fulfil the notification obligations to the Transparency Register. At the same time, many other privileges are being abolished, for example for listed stock corporations or for share deals. Affected companies should review their notification obligations in the near future. If there is no beneficial owner, the legal representatives have to be entered (fictitious beneficial owners).

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Driverless vehicles on the road - in regulatory terms, the German legislators are clearing the way. The pending Act is an interim solution that is not convincing on all points. The goal is to achieve an international legal framework. Our expert Dr. Angela Busche ex-plains the new regulations and points out the omissions.

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Far-reaching changes to the German Civil Code will come into force on 1 January. Companies in the retail and consumer goods sectors in particular will be affected by this. Just under six months are left before their implementation. Additionally, all (in-house) lawyers should familiarise them-selves with the new definition of defects in sales law. Patrick Vapore and Jörn Kuhn have sum-marised the main changes.

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The reform of foundations law is on its way: at last, there is going to be a uniform German law on foundations and several legal uncertainties that have existed to date will be eliminated. However, a central Foundations Register is also going to be introduced, which will bring this hitherto very non-transparent legal form much more into the public eye - this has both advantages and disadvantages. Founders and the executive bodies of foundations should use the time available until the law takes effect to check whether they need to act. Our experts have summarised the most important changes for you in our newsletter.

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It looks like the prayers of compliance officers, legal departments and managing directors have finally been heard: Within the scope of this year's amendment of German antitrust law (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen - GWB), the legislator has expressly stipulated for the first time in the new § 81d (1) No. 4 GWB that already existing compliance systems can be taken into consideration when determining fines with the effect of reducing sanctions. Outside of antitrust law, however, legal offenders are denied the consideration of preventive compliance measures (for the time being), now that the Coalition buried the German Corporate Sanctions Act (Ver-bandssanktionengesetz - VerSanG) this summer.

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On 1 July 2021 an amendment to the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance [SARS-CoV-2-Arbeitsschutzverordnung] came into force, which allows more freedom whilst still containing clear requirements. With the end of the obligation to work from the home office, companies face the increasing risk that employees will establish a permanent individual claim to home office work if they continue to work from home. Our partner Jörn Kuhn has compiled an overview of the current framework conditions under occupational health and safety law and of home office situations.

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The pandemic is currently losing some of its momentum in our day-to-day social and business life due to the progressing vaccination programme and seasonal peculiarities. However, with the usual delay, individual and collective law issues in connection with the pandemic are now increasingly the subject of labour court decisions

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