Earlier this year, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in an action concerning “piecemeal exemptions” to California’s usury law.

由于涉及股权回购/现金补偿责任与违约责任，违约金条款在对赌协议中表现得比较复杂。本文将在前述两种分类方法的基础上，结合司法案例具体分析违约金条款在对赌协议中的适用情况。

违约金是民商法中一种常见的违约责任形式。《民法典》第585条第1款就违约金作出了如下规定：

当事人可以约定一方违约时应当根据违约情况相对方支付一定数额的违约金，也可以约定因违约产生的损失赔偿额的计算方法。

显然，《民法典》将约定违约金的性质定位为，合同当事人预先约定的、由一方违约导致另一方损失的损害赔偿额。换言之，约定违约金的基本功能是补偿守约方损失而非惩罚违约方，更不是让守约方通过约定违约金获利。通过后文的案例，我们将看到约定违约金的这一性质定位是如何影响法院判决的。

对赌协议中的违约金条款通常有如下两种表现形式：融资方违反股权回购/现金补偿义务的违约金，融资方违反其他义务的违约金。

以投资方要求股权回购为例，前者表现为，根据对赌协议的约定，股权回购条件成就且投资方向融资方主张回购时，如果不履行或者逾期履行股权回购义务，则融资方需要按照应付但未付款项的一定比例支付逾期违约金。

On August 11, 2022, a two-judge bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Bank of Baroda vs Parasaadilal Tursiram Sheetgrah Pvt. Ltd. has observed that the time limit of 45 (forty-five) days prescribed under Section 17 of Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (“Act”) is provided for quick enforcement of the security.

Brief Facts & Procedural History

This 2022 review provides an overview of recent Australian Restructuring and Insolvency activity along with the laws, their application and recent trends and development in restructuring and insolvency activity.

Chapters:

The Bankruptcy Protector

Good afternoon.

Following are this week’s summaries of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of August 22, 2022.

In Mundo Media Ltd. (Re), the Court refused leave to appeal in a bankruptcy case where a debtor of the bankrupt sought to stay the bankruptcy proceeding in favour of international arbitration. The single proceeding model permits a bankruptcy court to override arbitration agreements.

Restructuring debt obligations under Singapore law can be an attractive option for companies seeking debtor-led reorganisations, as the country aims to be a centre for debt restructuring in Asia. There are options for non-Singapore companies to take advantage of the jurisdiction’s scheme of arrangement regime.

In May 2022, HM Treasury published a consultation to take views on how best to regulate the failure of stablecoin companies using pre-existing insolvency legislation. Stablecoin companies are classed by the UK Government as systemic “digital settlement asset” (DSA) firms. A large failure could have a significant disruptive effect on the economy, so the area requires robust statutory processes in place to manage any wind-down.

In the short time since we last provided an update regarding the bankruptcy cases of Celsius Networks LLC and its affiliates (here), there have been a number of material developments to report.

On August 15, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) issued final guidelines, outlining the tiered approach it will use when evaluating the growing requests from fintech firms and cryptocurrency companies for access to master accounts.