Irish landlords to former Monsoon stores in Dublin and Cork have won their High Court claim that their leases with the fashion retailer remained in full force despite the existence of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in the UK.

Background

On 3 July 2019, a CVA was approved in the UK by 84 % of Monsoon’s creditors. None of the Dublin or Cork landlords attended the meeting either in person or by proxy.

On 31 March 2020, the Czech government approved ‘Lex COVID-19’, a new act (and an amendment of the Insolvency Act and Enforcement Code) that should help mitigate certain effects caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in relation to different proceedings (e.g. civil, administrative, criminal, insolvency and enforcement) and the corporate lives of legal entities.

Lex COVID-19 will now be debated in the Chamber of Deputies ahead of final approval.

The new Amendment on the Czech Insolvency Act (the “Amendment”) will enter into force on 1 July 2017.

The Amendment introduces a “liquidity gap” test, which will be used when a debtor (entrepreneur) needs to determine whether it is considered insolvent or not. The liquidity gap is the difference between a debtor’s due debts and its readily available funds. A debtor will only be considered insolvent if the liquidity gap is higher than 10% of its overdue debts.

The Czech Parliament passed an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure (Act No. 99/1963 Coll., as amended) and the Act on Execution Procedure (Act No. 120/2001 Coll., as amended). Most of the provisions of the new legislation will be effective as of 1 January 2013. The amendment will, among other things, significantly modify the rules on enforcement of claims in the Czech Republic, as it changes some of the existing methods of enforcement under Czech law as well as introducing new ones.