On 14 November 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment on jurisdiction for avoidance actions under the previous Insolvency Regulation.

In its decision of 12 February 2009, the Court had already established that the courts of the Member State with jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings are competent for all the actions directly related to the insolvency.

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Certainty is a key element in any business planning. For corporate restructuring practitioners who are planning or working on cross border transactions, the uncertainty relating to Brexit and the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union ("EU") may have long-term significant consequences and a "no-deal" Brexit (without a withdrawal agreement and the certainty of a transition period) will have immediate and significant consequences for any such cross-border transaction.

Although they disagree about the severity, economists and market watchers generally agree that the U.S. economy is headed for a slow-down. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, industrial production and retail sales are at all-time highs, exceeding levels seen before the 2008 recession. Unemployment rates are at the lowest levels since November 2000. So why the gloomy predictions for 2019 and beyond? Historically, retail sales, industrial production and employment are at their peaks right before a recession.

No es concursal una acción que tiene por objeto una pretensión de indemnización de daños y perjuicios por responsabilidad delictual o cuasidelictual, que ejercita el síndico en el marco de un procedimiento de insolvencia y que, de prosperar, daría lugar a la reintegración de lo obtenido en la masa activa. La competencia para conocer de ella se determina por las disposiciones del Reglamento Bruselas I (RBI, aplicado al caso por razones temporales, si bien lo decidido por el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea [TJUE] se extiende al actualmente aplicable RBIbis).

Certainty is a key element in any business planning. For corporate restructuring practitioners who are planning or working on cross border transactions, the uncertainty relating to Brexit and the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union (“EU”) may have long-term significant consequences and a “no-deal” Brexit (without a withdrawal agreement and the certainty of a transition period) will have immediate and significant consequences for any such cross-border transaction. 

On 13 September 2018 the Government issued guidance relating to civil legal cases and insolvency cases where there was a ‘no deal’ scenario: ‘Handling civil legal cases that involve EU countries if there’s no Brexit deal’ (I shall refer to this as the “Notice” in this article).

On 28 November 2016 the German Federal Fiscal Court (FFC) (GrS BFH 1/15, published on 8 February 2017) held that the guidance on a reorganisation tax privilege (Reorganization Decree (Sanierungserlass)) issued by the German Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) in 2003 was invalid. The ruling has created great uncertainty for the restructuring practice in Germany regarding the proper tax treatment of restructuring gains.

An extract from GRR The European, Middle Eastern and African Restructuring Review 2018

Brief overview of insolvency proceedings

Enhanced by no less than five reforms over the past 10 years, French insolvency law now provides a comprehensive set of tools designed to efficiently handle the legal, economic and financial difficulties that companies are facing. The whole insolvency architecture hinges on the key concept of cessation of payments (ie, inability of the debtor to pay its debts as they fall due with its available assets).

Recently the German legislature passed a new law, exempting extraordinary profits created by the waiver of claims under restructurings from income tax liability. The amendment was necessary because the German Federal Tax Court had previously held the original administrative decree (which in a conceptually different manner avoided the tax burden on such profits) unlawful. This article gives a brief overview over the legislative history and the practical consequences of the amendment.

1. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY