News-Archive

17.11.2021 News

Frequently recommended by in-house lawyers: Oppenhoff climbs to 4th place in Kanzleimonitor’s overall ranking

Oppenhoff has achieved 4th place in the overall ranking of the law firm monitor Kanzleimonitor 2021/2022. Oppenhoff has thus climbed three places since last year.

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Supply bottlenecks: rights and claims of retailers and online traders

Global supply chains are groaning. Corona crisis, semiconductor bottleneck, container shortage, congestion at ports - all this has created supply shortages and is currently having a severe impact on trade. Disputes between producers, traders, transporters and end consumers are not uncommon. Our experts are taking a look at the current legal issues affecting trade.

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Retail and Consumer Goods16.11.2021 Newsletter

Omnibus Directive: further notification obligations and easier termination options strengthen consumer protection

Shortly before the end of the last legislative period, the German legislator passed several consumer protection laws. Stationary traders, online traders and operators of online marketplaces must implement several changes. Simon Sawert explains where action is needed.

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Oppenhoff advises SWARCO on acquisition of Dynniq Mobility

Oppenhoff has advised SWARCO AG on the acquisition of the Mobility division of the Dynniq Group, coordinating the work of foreign law firms in nine jurisdictions.

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04.11.2021 News

JUVE Awards 2021: Oppenhoff Law Firm of the Year for Company/Succession/Trusts

Oppenhoff has been named Law Firm of the Year for the area of Company/Succession/Trusts at this year's JUVE Awards. This is in recognition of the outstanding development of the practice and the team led by Dr. Axel Wenzel. Oppenhoff was also nominated in no less than three categories this year: Compliance, Media & Technology and Law Firm of the Year.

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Retail and Consumer Goods04.11.2021 Newsletter

Modernisation of consumer protection: obligations to provide information, fines and damages

Driven by digitisation, consumer protection is currently being modernised: in August 2021, two further new legislative amendments were promulgated. These will come into force on 28 May 2022. Previously, in June 2021, amendments were promulgated, which particularly affected purchase law. Below, we explain the impact the new legislative amendments will have on traders and what preparatory steps they can already take.

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FISG: effects on supervisory boards and the composition of the audit committee

In July of this year, the German Act on the Strengthening of Financial Market Integrity (Gesetz zur Stärkung der Finanzmarktintegrität), or “FISG” for short, came into force. With this, the legislator wishes to strengthen confidence in the German financial market again, especially after the so-called Wirecard scandal. To this end, the FISG envisages a large number of measures, including the legal obligation of listed stock corporations to establish an internal control system (ICS) and risk management system (RMS), the strengthening of the independence and tightening of the liability of annual accounts’ auditors, and the extension of the powers of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin).

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Automotive and Mobility02.11.2021 News

Oppenhoff advises German Association of the Automotive Industry on the implementation of a sustainability standard for the automotive industry

Oppenhoff has advised the German Association of the Automotive Industry e.V. (Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V. - VDA) on the foundation of the Responsible Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) e.V. Together with manufacturers, suppliers and other associations, the VDA is developing a voluntary, standardised testing mechanism to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies in automotive supply chains.

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26.10.2021 News

Oppenhoff advises majority shareholder of Telexiom on sale of company

Oppenhoff has advised the majority shareholder of the IT consulting company Telexiom AG on the sale of all shares in the company to the US competitor Qualitest Group. The majority shareholder also represented the other shareholders in the sale of their shares.

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In-house lawyers as obligated parties under the GwG

For a long time, it was unclear to what extent in-house lawyers are ‘obligated parties’ within the meaning of the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG). On 1 January 2020, the legislator introduced the new Sec. 10 (8a) GwG, which explicitly names in-house lawyers as obligated parties for the first time, thus clarifying that in-house lawyers are also addressees of the obligations under money laundering law. However, there is still a lack of clarity on many points as far as the exact scope of the obligations of in-house lawyers are concerned. Companies and in-house lawyers affected by this need to review their specific obligations under the GwG as soon as possible if they are to avoid fines for violations of its obligations.

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