Most companies now hold large volumes of personal data – it is almost inevitable due to the interplay between technology and business. This includes companies that become insolvent, but what obligations does a liquidator have in relation to the personal data held by a company?

Notice to stakeholders: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU rules in the field of civil justice and private international law.

On 27 August 2020, the European Commission published a ‘Notice to Stakeholders’ setting out how EU laws in the areas of civil justice and private international law will apply when the Brexit transition period ends on the 31 December 2020.

This Notice replaces an earlier notice published in January 2019 and a document with questions and answers published in April 2019.

As many companies continue to suffer economic hardship due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that mergers and acquisitions of companies and assets in distress will feature as a significant proportion of overall M&A transactions in Ireland during the coming months.

In a case litigated by the authors, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held in In re Marzieh Bastanipour, Case No. 20-1373 (7th Cir. June 10, 2020) that Chapter 13 debtors are not permitted in forma pauperis fee waivers absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances.

In 2018, the Debtor, Marzieh Bastanipour, filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This was the third Chapter 13 petition filed by the Debtor since 2013.

Force majeure clauses and the doctrines of impossibility and/or impracticability remain among the most-discussed legal topics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Courts across the country, finally open, are grappling with those issues and giving some insight as to how these topics may play out in future cases.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, concerns have been raised by directors and bodies representing directors regarding potential liabilities directors may face by allowing businesses to continue to trade where there is a risk of insolvency.

In particular many directors are becoming increasingly concerned of the risks of personal liability being imposed on them if they allow their insolvent business to continue to trade in the anticipation that it will trade itself out of difficulty when the current COVID-19 crisis is behind us.

Seyfarth Synopsis: In acquiring a company in bankruptcy, there is often a tendency to think this guarantees the purchaser will be “free and clear” of any liability (including so-called “successor liability”). This is not necessarily so with wage and hour liability, particularly if the purchaser merely continues to operate virtually the same business that was acquired.

The sometimes controversial Examinership process, established in 1990, remains a very important tool for Irish companies with viable businesses that find themselves in financial difficulties.

It was established with the intention of preserving employment and benefiting the economy by facilitating corporate recovery. Examinership enables companies that successfully come through the process to do so with new investment and, hopefully, a brighter future that might not have otherwise been possible if the company had been forced into receivership or liquidation.

SJK Wholesale Limited (In Liquidation) v Companies Act 2014 [2020] IEHC 196

Introduction

In a recent decision, the Irish High Court refused to grant a liquidator access to a Google email account.

The court ruled that Irish insolvency law did not permit a court to order Google Ireland to grant the liquidator access to the email account in circumstances where the email account was created in the name of an individual rather than the company itself.

Courts continue to address constitutional and statutory challenges to COVID-19-related legislation and governmental orders. Among them, courts are examining eligibility for PPP loans under the CARES Act, as well as the constitutionality of “stay at home” and similar orders restricting activities.

PPP loans under the CARES Act