On 9 July 2013 a new law amending the Code of Commerce was enacted in Luxembourg (the “Law”). The Law introduces the right for a depositor to claim the recovery of intangible and non-fungible (i.e., identifiable and separable) goods from a bankrupt company. The parliamentary file aims clearly at including data from a bankrupt cloud computing service provider. The Law sets forth the different conditions to be fulfilled for the entitlement to claim intangible and non-fungible goods from a bankrupt company:

The Personal Insolvency Act 2012 (the “PI Act”) was signed into law on 26 December 2012 and introduces significant changes to the personal insolvency regime in Ireland, as described in our previous client briefing concerning the PI Act (issued in December 2012 and available on our website). All provisions of the PI Act, other than Part 4 which relates to bankruptcy, have now been commenced and it is expected that debtors will shortly be able to avail of the new insolvency measures.

The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2013 (“the Act”) has been enacted. The Act addresses the unintended consequences arising from the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”).

Summary

After a company has been declared bankrupt, the liquidator in charge of the bankrupt estate will process personal data on that bankrupt company’s behalf. The liquidator would then be considered a so-called data controller within the meaning of the Dutch Data Protection Act (DDPA).

A Dutch Court of Appeal recently upheld a lower court’s decision that a liquidator has the right to access data concerning the administration of a bankrupt company, the data of which are kept by a third party. It also held that this right, however, does not imply that the third party must provide the data in an orderly manner without being adequately compensated for it.

New legislation alters the law and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways. The Personal Insolvency Act 2012 establishes an independent Insolvency Service of Ireland and introduces new insolvency procedures for addressing unsecured debts (of any value) and secured debts (up to €3 million in aggregate but without limit in the case of agreement). Current bankruptcy laws are amended, including a reduction of the bankruptcy term from 12 years to 3 and the carve-out of pension assets from the bankrupt’s estate.

In a recent case before the Court of Appeal in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the question was raised whether a liquidator should get access to data stored in a cloud, when the company, having a contractual relationship with the cloud provider, has gone into bankruptcy.

Draft legislation proposes to alter the law and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways. The proposals include the establishment of an independent Insolvency Service of Ireland and the introduction of new procedures for addressing unsecured debts (of any value) and secured debts (up to €3 million in aggregate but without limit in the case of agreement). Current bankruptcy laws would also be amended, principally to increase the minimum level of debt required to enter bankruptcy to €20,000 and to reduce the bankruptcy term from 12 years to three.

Government proposals for new legislation would alter the law and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways. The proposals include the establishment of an independent Insolvency Service and the introduction of non-judicial procedures for addressing unsecured debts (of any value) and secured debts (in the range €20,000 to €3 million). Current bankruptcy laws would also be amended.

On 25 January 2012 the Government announced proposals to amend the laws and procedures of personal insolvency in radical ways.