I. RISK TO COMPANIES FROM THE IMPACTS OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC The corona pandemic leads to a decline in sales revenues worldwide. Demand is plummeting. At the same time, supply chains in the globally networked economy are no longer reliable. Obligations to pay compensation for the inability to supply are impending, particularly in cases of no-fault supply guarantees. The liquidity and therefore the continued existence of many companies are at risk ...
On 7 April 2020, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, in agreement with the Federal Ministry of Health, adopted the Covid-19 Working Hours Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the Working Hours Regulation), which allows exceptions to the Working Hours Act for a limited period of time from 10 April 2020. 1 ...
The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the European Union and the United Kingdom envisaged that during the United Kingdom's transitional period data protection legislation would have been treated in the same way as with the countries of the European Economic Area. This would have allowed a transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United Kingdom without additional measures to ensure adequate levels of data protection ...
In the sensational decision of 14 May 2019 (Case C-55/18), the ECJ ruled that the Member States must oblige employers to introduce an "objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured”. The decision was largely understood primarily as an appeal to the legislators of the Member States to implement the EU legal requirements ...
The necessity of the contemplated Real Estate Transfer Tax Act amendments has been subject of intense discussions. The finance ministers of the German states reached agreement on introducing new tax provisions and on extending the scope of existing rules in June and November 2018 ...
Although under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission has limited power regarding infrastructure policy, which remains a Member state competence, recent rulings of the ECJ regarding ports and airports have allowed it to extend its role in this area by applying the State aid rules to infrastructure financing ...
The German government launched an aid program to support start-ups and young growth companies in the corona crisis aimed at providing start-ups with liquidity quickly. One of the pillars of this program is the Corona Matching Facility (CMF), where KfW Capital and the European Investment Fund (EIF) are “matching” investments of private venture capital funds (VC funds). The aid is therefore linked to the investments of VC funds ...
On 13 March 2019, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Baden-Württemberg (LfDI BaWü) published the latest version of his guidebook on employee data protection. In this brochure, the LfDI BaWü offers an insight into his work and explains his opinion regarding the various points of view surrounding employee data protection ...
Please note the following press release. This press release is available at our homepage. A HEUKING team, led by Munich-based Partner Boris Dürr, advised PRIMEPULSE SE on the sale of its majority stake in publicly listed KATEK SE to Kontron Acquisitions GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly listed Kontron AG. The transaction involved the sale of roughly 60% of all KATEK shares at a price of about EUR 130 million ...
In its decision of 8 August 2019 (Ref.: 29 W 940/19), the Munich Higher Regional Court commented for the first time on the German Act on the Protection of Business Secrets (GeschGehG). In court proceedings in which claims arising from the law which came into force at the end of April 2019 are asserted, urgency should not be presumed pursuant to Section 12 (2) German Law against unfair competition (UWG) (analogously) ...
THE CURRENT STARTING SITUATION The spread of the corona virus is a considerable burden on the economy. Many companies in Germany are forced to reduce their business operations or even to close down completely or partially. In other sectors of the economy, such as food retailing or companies providing services of general interest, the increased demand for products or the increased demand can hardly be met ...
The Regional Labor Court (LAG) of Baden-Württemberg, in its ruling of December 20, 2018 (Ref. 17 Sat 11/18), granted an employee a comprehensive right to information against his employer with regard to all personal data collected about his person. The right to information was explicitly confirmed in relation to personal data resulting from internal investigations and data from potential whistleblowers ...
The Regional Labor Court (LAG) of Baden-Württemberg, in its ruling of December 20, 2018 (Ref. 17 Sat 11/18), granted an employee a comprehensive right to information against his employer with regard to all personal data collected about his person. The right to information was explicitly confirmed in relation to personal data resulting from internal investigations and data from potential whistleblowers ...
(FOPH, Ruling of 12.13.2018, 2 AZR 378/18) In a very helpful decision for the practice, the FOPH has commented on the procedure for consulting with the representative body for severely disabled persons before dismissals. It is sufficient for the employer to consult the representative body for severely disabled persons before notice of dismissal in accordance with the basic principles applicable to the participation of the works council pursuant to Sec ...
In recent months, the European courts have again decided numerous state aid cases. The following decisions deal with the criteria for determining a secondary activity required for a SGEI, the classification of an enterprise as an SME in case of control by public authorities, the point of time when de minimis aid is granted as well as the prerequisites for funds being considered as state resources ...
In recent months, the European courts have again decided numerous cases on state aid law. The following cases deal with antitrust law claims for damages for granting authorities, the effects of changes to the legal basis in state aid proceedings and the access to files in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1049/2001 in state aid proceedings ...
FACTS OF THE CASE The plaintiff and the defendant, who operates a horse-riding facility, agreed on a three-month internship for career orientation (professional horse farmer; Pferdewirt). The internship started on October 6, 2015. The plaintiff was involved in saddling and cleaning horses, putting them on a belt, feeding them, taking them to the pasture and back, and helping with stable cleaning. During the period from November 3 to 6, 2015, the plaintiff was ill and not fit to work ...
Since the GDPR has been in force, almost every company has, among other things, dealt with issues of the permissibility of direct marketing and other marketing activities under data protection law. At their data protection conference on Nov. 07-08, 2018, the German data protection supervisory authorities issued a new "orientation guide" on this topic (as of November 2018) ...
The Bavarian Data Protection Authority ("BayLDA") has published an online test on its website that can be used by companies to determine how well they are prepared on key topics of the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). The GDPR will apply directly in the member states of the European Union with effect from May 25, 2018. This will result in significant changes to data protection law in many areas ...
Many companies use so-called tracking tools on their website to analyze the use of the website by their visitors, and possibly also to carry out advertising activities on the basis of user profiles created with the tracking tools. These tracking tools mainly use cookies, i.e. small files that can identify a user of a website and that are deposited on the respective user's computer ...
If, in the course of an in-depth assessment, the EU Commission finds that an unlawfully granted aid is incompatible with the internal market, it is obliged under Article 16 of the Procedural Regulation 2015/1589 to order the recovery of the aid by the Member State. On 23 July 2019, the Commission published an updated notice on recovery (2019/C 247/01) ...
Labor Court Siegburg 11/11/2020 - 4 Ca 1240/20 Short-time work continues to be omnipresent in many sectors of the economy due to the Covid 19 pandemic. A recent decision by the Labor Court Siegburg once again emphasizes that the ordering and implementation of short-time work requires careful preparation on the part of the company in terms of labor law in order to avoid unpleasant surprises ...
BAG, ruling dated February 7, 2019 - 6 AZR 75/18 A termination agreement under labor law cannot be withdrawn pursuant to consumer protection regulations (Sec. 312(1) in combination with Sec. 312g, Sec. 355 German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; BGB)) only because it was concluded in the employee’s private home. In its ruling dated February 6, 2019 (Ref. No ...
The Heidelberg Regional Court rejected an employee’s claim for access to information about the employer’s processing of his personal data insofar as this data is merely located in backup files of his email account. Restoring such data was said to represent disproportionate effort for the controller in this individual case (judgment of February 6, 2020 – 4 O 6/19) ...
