“Sophisticated financial titans engaged in a winner-take-all battle. There was a winner and a loser. Such an outcome was not only foreseeable, it is the only correct result. The risk of loss is a check on unrestrained behavior.”

The EU Commission has presented a draft directive on the mandatory inclusion of a "pre-pack proceeding" in national insolvency laws.

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission published a draft directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law with the aim of facilitating distressed M&A by reducing legal uncertainties in cross-border transactions.

On May 30, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a bankruptcy court’s confirmation of a chapter 11 reorganization plan containing nonconsensual releases of direct claims against third-party non-debtors, including the debtor’s controlling owners, the Sacklers.

The lack of harmonised insolvency laws has long been regarded as one of the greatest obstacles to the free movement of capital in the EU in general and to cross-border investments, insolvency proceedings and restructuring in particular.

Die EU-Kommission hat einen Richtlinienentwurf u.a. zur verpflichtenden Aufnahme eines „Pre-pack-Verfahrens“ in die nationalen Insolvenzgesetze vorgelegt.

Die Entscheidung des BGH zur Wirksamkeit insolvenzabhängiger Lösungsklauseln könnte der Grundstein einer neuen Linie in der Rechtsprechung werden.

Is an insolvent debtor’s pre-bankruptcy termination of a commercial lease a fraudulent transfer? The Third Circuit said no when it held that a lessor’s pre-bankruptcy termination of the debtors’ lease and purchase option “was not a transfer under Bankruptcy Code §548(a) (1)(B).” In re Pazzo Pazzo Inc., 2022 WL 17690158 (3d Cir. Dec. 15, 2022). But the Seventh Circuit held that a chapter 11 debtor’s pre-bankruptcy “surrender of [two] … leases to [its landlord] could be regarded as a preferential [or fraudulent] transfer.” In re Great Lakes Quick Lube L.P., 816 F.3d 482 (7th Cir. 2016).

Sometimes a debtor is liable for fraud that she did not personally commit,” held the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2023, when the debtor’s business partner had deceptively obtained money by fraud, thereby making the innocent partner liable for a nondischargeable debt under Bankruptcy Code (Code) §523(a)(2)(A) (“any debt from money “obtained by … fraud” not dischargeable and survives debtor’s bankruptcy). Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 2023 WL 2144417 (Feb. 22, 2023).

"When a modification to a Chapter 11 reorganization plan materially and adversely affects the treatment of a class of claim or interest holders, those claim or interest holders are entitled to a new disclosure statement and another opportunity to vote.” In re America-CV Station Group, Inc., 2023 WL 109967 (11th Cir. Jan. 5, 2023). In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit just upended a hastily confirmed reorganization plan.

“The theme is clear: absent financial distress, there is no reason for Chapter 11 and no valid bankruptcy purpose.”