European Union: Insolvency/Bankruptcy

Under Maltese company law, creditors holding at least one-fourth of a company's debt value have the statutory right to request a meeting to potentially replace the Official Receiver as liquidator. This mechanism provides creditors with meaningful influence over the liquidation process, particularly when specialized expertise or a different approach to asset recovery is needed.

The European Union has formally adopted a directive establishing minimum standards for insolvency law harmonization across Member States, covering avoidance actions, asset tracing, pre-pack proceedings, director filing duties, creditors' committees, and transparency measures. While the directive sets baseline requirements in these critical areas, its practical impact on German insolvency law is expected to be limited, as Germany's existing framework already meets or exceeds most of the directive's standards

The acquisition of assets or business operations out of insolvency proceedings presents distinct legal challenges under German law, particularly regarding the automatic transfer of employment relationships. The "acquirer concept" (Erwerberkonzept) offers a legally reliable solution that enables workforce restructuring while avoiding prohibited terminations based solely on the transfer of operations.

When a client declares bankruptcy after receiving most of your work but before final payment, copyright law offers a powerful legal strategy. Understanding the indivisibility of copyright transfer agreements can be the key to recovering your money when a €100,000 contract goes unpaid.

Legislative Decree No. 47 of March 27, 2026 fundamentally restructures Italian corporate governance by placing all three governance models on equal footing, expanding board-level duties...

A crisis at the cash-pool leader does not automatically make cash pooling impermissible. It does, however, materially intensify the review, monitoring and documentation duties of managing directors at the level of each participating company. The key issues are recoverability of the repayment claim, practical access to pooled funds and protection of the company’s own minimum liquidity.

Failure to remit employee social security contributions in Germany may trigger personal criminal and civil liability of managing directors under Section 266a German Criminal Code.

Debt is not separately defined for Belgian tax purposes, hence in principle the civil law definition prevails.

Depuis la réforme du 7 août 2023, la procédure de réorganisation judiciaire constitue un nouvel outil pour les entreprises en difficulté.