News-Archive

Oppenhoff has advised SDC Technologies, Inc., USA, on the acquisition of COTEC GmbH, located in Karlstein near Frankfurt, from its founder.

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On 28 September 2020, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection [Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz, BMJV] published a first ministerial draft bill on the reform and standardisation of the law governing foundations. The meaning and purpose of the reform is to strengthen legal certainty. Unfortunately, the current patchwork of federal and federal state laws (as well as the acknowledged principles of customary law) only inadequately provide such certainty. In addition, a public register of foundations is going to be created, which should then create greater transparency in the foundation landscape. A definite need for action exists for all foundations that manage their administration from abroad.

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The meat industry has long been in the spotlight because of the precarious working and living conditions of the external Eastern European personnel frequently employed in it. For this reason, the Federal Government had already adopted a key issues paper on occupational health and safety in the meat industry in May 2020. As a result of the recent pandemic outbreaks in meat factories such as those in NRW, Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein, the meat industry is considered to be a new corona hotspot.

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As the pandemic persists, it comes as no surprise that the virus and its effects on daily working life are not only keeping personnel departments and public administration on tenterhooks, but are also increasingly occupying the labor courts. Since a return to the norm in Germany is not foreseeable, these Corona-specific decisions will retain their relevance to the collaboration between the business parties for what currently looks like an unforeseeable time. Other decisions of the labor courts also require attention, however. In this "Focus on Labor Law ", we inform you of the most important recent judgements and provide you with the latest news on the currently popular topic of the "home office".

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In its session on 18 September 2020, the Bundesrat commented on the Federal Government’s draft bill of the German Corporate Liability Act [Verbandssanktionengesetz - VerSanG] in accordance with Article 76 II German Constitution [Grundgesetz - GG]. The Committee's recommendation to reject the draft bill in its entirety was not accepted. However, the Bundesrat does propose several rather far-reaching amendments and additions. These aim not least to protect the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Oppenhoff has advised Compagnie de Saint-Gobain Zweigniederlassung Deutschland on the acquisition of a majority stake in the Brüggemann Holzbau Group.

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We are pleased to send you the second issue of DEAL POINTS, Oppenhoff's newsletter on M&A and private equity. Whereas our publications in the first half of the year mainly dealt with acute issues concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, the improved situation now means that we can turn our attention again to future transactions in these special times.

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Ritter Sport remains the only square chocolate on German supermarket shelves, whereas the Goldbear goes empty-handed. We come across the latter in trade in both fruit gummy and choco-late form, albeit from different manufacturers. Hardly any other decision of the Federal Court of Justice [Bundesgerichtshof, “BGH”] has caused as much of a stir in recent years as the pro-ceedings brought by Haribo against Lindt and Milka against Ritter Sport.

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Due to internal disagreements between the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Justice, the amendment was on hold for months. Now the Federal Government has published the official draft bill of the 10th amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (ARC).

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The German Data Protection Conference “Datenschutzkonferenz” (DSK), the central body of data protec-tion commissioners of the German Federal Government and Federal States, has commented on the limits of video surveillance measures in conformity with data protection legislation in its Guidance of 3 Sep-tember 2020. In the paper, the DSK more precisely specifies the principles defined by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) on this matter in its Guidelines 3/2019.

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