News-Archive

The commercial law firm Oppenhoff has advised the global media company Banijay on the acquisition of 100 percent of the Cologne-based TV production company Brainpool (including "Schlag den Star" (ProSieben), "Pastewka" (Amazon), "Luke! Die Schule und ich” (Sat.1)).

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With this "Focus on Labor Law", we are pleased to present you the new design of our previous newsletter. Our Focus on Labor Law will continue to inform you in the usual manner at the end of each quarter about current labor court decisions and legal developments of particular relevance to your company’s personnel work. This issue also contains a "Corona Update" with the most important current labor law aspects of the pandemic.

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The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO, Bundeskartellamt) had prohibited Facebook from en-couraging its German users to agree to a practically unlimited collection and allocation of data to their user account. However, the FCO has so far been unable to enforce the order, because Fa-cebook appealed against this decision to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court and obtained an order granting the suspensive effect of the appeal. This has now changed with the decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which revoked the order of suspensive effect of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG Düsseldorf) on 23 June 2020.

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The practical importance of test seals, quality and certification signs is growing. Due to the growing number of products and services on offer, consumers are increasingly looking for trustworthy verification marks to help them decide for or against a product or service. In this context, consumers not only pay attention to quality marks that relate to the quality of the goods or services, but criteria such as animal and environmental protection as well as sustainability are increasingly moving into the focus of consumer awareness.

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Through the implementation of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) in Germany, legal requirements were created under which certain companies are obliged to make non-financial statements on their measures for environmental protection, employee protection, social commitment, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery.

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On 18 June 2020, after final deliberation, the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) adopted the CDU/CSU and SPD bill to amend the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act as well as other laws with the votes of the coalition parties. The amending law passed by the Bundestag will now be forwarded to the Federal Council, where it is to be finalized as soon as possible.

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More and more companies are using sustainability for advertising purposes, whether in terms of products, working conditions or the standards of their suppliers. But what are legal consequences of such measures or statements for the company’s executive organs? For the liability risks, a distinction has to be made between binding and voluntary statements.

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For several years now, employers have been increasingly addressing issues of environmental protection and its implementation in the company. Besides the environmental policy factors, employer branding and the improvement of the company's own brand serve as driving forces for companies. Many ideas have been implemented or are maturing. Even proceeding on the basis that many issues are handled in the interests of the workforce and will not or are not expected to meet with resistance from the works councils, one should not lose sight of what a works council is legally entitled to demand. As plausible as the co-determination of the works council is in case of the closure of a company car park, as implausible this would seem when it comes to questions concerning the separation of waste.

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With effect from 1 July 2020, the independent commercial law firm Oppenhoff has appointed cor-porate and M&A attorney Sarah Scharf as partner, and labor law attorney Alexandra Groth and litigation and arbitration attorney Dr. Anna-Gesine Lock as junior partners. These steps up the career ladder are in response to the attorneys' contributions to the sustained success of the firm’s clients.

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According to the BMF letter of 24 April 2020, it is now possible to apply for a (partial) refund of the advance payments already made for 2019 by means of a lump-sum loss carryback.

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