News-Archive

As the number of vaccinations increases and the number of infections continues to decrease, it is time to come to terms with the crisis and structure New Work. Risks that were previously accepted may now no longer be acceptable. Companies suspect that problems exist. This has been shown by a survey by Deloitte ("The future of compliance 2020 - higher risk of future violations"). However, the risks expected according to the study do not cover all of the actual compliance risks. This article offers a first interdisciplinary overview of the compliance risks triggered by the pandemic and increasing digitisation, especially through the home office and the like. The risks necessitate an adjustment of existing compliance management systems.

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Despite falling infection rates and progressive vaccination, many companies are still heavily burdened by pandemic-related restriction measures. On 9 June 2021, the Federal Cabinet therefore adopted the Third Ordinance Amending the Short-Time Work Benefit Ordinance to extend the facilitated access to short-time work benefit and full reimbursement of social security contributions until 30 September 2021. At the same time, the Cabinet approved the extension of Bridging Aid III until the end of September 2021 as well as a restart premium for companies.

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The EU Whistleblower Directive, which sets uniform standards to better protect whistleblowers, already came into force on 16 December 2019. The EU member states have until 17 December 2021 to transpose the requirements into national law. The German Federal Ministry of Justice [Bundesministerium für Justiz] has presented a corresponding draft bill in the form of the so-called Whistleblower Protection Act [Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz - HinSchG], albeit that the coalition partners have not yet been able to agree on it, as it extends far beyond the requirements of the EU Directive.

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Oppenhoff has represented Deutsche Lufthansa in a successful action before the General Court of the European Union (T-218/18). In a judgment of 19 May 2021, the Court annulled a decision of the European Commission by which the authority had authorized the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to cover operating losses of Hahn Airport of up to 25.3 million euro in the time period from 2017 to 2021.

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Last Friday, 21 May 2021, the Bundestag passed the German Works Council Modernisation Act [Betriebsrätemodernisierungsgesetz]. Core issues of the Act are the strengthening of the work conducted by works councils and digitisation. There has been and is plenty of criticism of the changes. In particular, the legislator has failed to address the question of whether the co-determination criterion for introducing and using technical devices to monitor conduct and performance need to be modified in view of the ongoing digitisation of corporate processes.

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Oppenhoff has advised the private equity house Finatem on the IPO of its portfolio company hGears AG. The manufacturer of mission-critical high-precision gear parts and components with a focus on e-cars and e-bikes aims to use the issue proceeds of around EUR 62 million to further promote organic growth in the e-mobility sector.

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Today, RIMOWA is auctioning four so-called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) of works of art. NFTs are digital certificates stored in the blockchain that serve as proof of ownership of digital and real products. In March 2021, a digital work of art was already sold as an NFT for a record sum of over 69 million euros. Real products can also be linked to NFTs. With all the hype surrounding NFTs, this raises legal questions.

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Cyber-Attacken auf Unternehmen häufen sich. Viele Unternehmen trifft es unvorbereitet. In diesem interdisziplinären Workshop bereiten wir Sie auf den Ernstfall vor. Unsere Experten zeigen Präventions- und Reaktionsmöglichkeiten anhand eines beispielhaften Krisenszenarios auf.

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With Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons notifying violations of Union law (Whistleblower Directive), the member states have agreed on a uniform protection of whistleblowers insofar as they expose violations of EU law. The Directive is to be implemented into national law by the end of this year.

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In many companies in Germany, company doctors are all set to vaccinate employees against Covid-19. The official go-ahead for this is imminent and employers now have cause to hope for the "return" of their workers from home office and a normalisation of company procedures. At the same time, however, this gives rise to very important questions of labour law and data protection law, which we would like to answer for you below:

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