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On 24 March 2025, the Belgium Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) issued an important ruling regarding the classification of contractually agreed-upon compensations as wage, even if they are not directly linked to the work for the employer. Such compensations are recognized as “wages,” even when they are not directly linked to actual work performed.

The European Union has added weight to its negotiating position for a trade deal with the U.S. by launching a public consultation on products imported from the U.S. that could be subject to new EU rebalancing measures (retaliatory tariffs).

An employer wanting to terminate an employment contract can choose between respecting a notice period or paying an indemnity in lieu of notice. An employee wanting to resign has the same choice, but few employees choose to pay their employer an indemnity in lieu of notice.

Alors que, ces dernières années, l’Union européenne affichait l’ambition de devenir un leader mondial en matière de développement durable, la Commission européenne revoit aujourd’hui ses prétentions à la baisse.

On 25 March 2025, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a decision regarding the use of a geolocation system in a company car. The DPA reaffirms the system's legitimacy and clarifies the established principles in this decision.

On 19 March 2025, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Council Regulation establishing the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument. This temporary emergency mechanism is designed to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to the brutal deterioration of the security context in the spring of 2025.

The new kid on the block in the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape is the AI agent, an autonomous system capable of analysing situations, making independent decisions and performing tasks without human intervention. AI agents don’t need a new prompt each time they generate a response. They get a high-level task, and figure out how to complete it. While their capabilities offer significant opportunities, the autonomy inherent in AI agents also poses significant legal challenges.

L’Europe souhaite que les sociétés, les autorités compétentes et les autres parties prenantes aient pleinement accès à des informations d’entreprise numériques fiables qui peuvent être utilisées dans un contexte transfrontalier sans formalités complexes.

On 3 December 2024, the Labour Court of Appeal of Brussels issued a judgment in response to a claim for manifestly unreasonable dismissal under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (hereafter CBA No. 109). The employee was initially dismissed with a notice period after which the notice period was terminated early, and the remaining notice period was replaced by a severance payment. For the first time, we see a court awarding compensation under CBA No. 109 for both the initial dismissal and the early termination of the notice period.

In a previous blog post, we explored the principle under EU law that human intervention is a prerequisite for granting copyright protection to works created using generative AI tools.

The extent to which works qualify for copyright protection depends on whether they constitute a "specific and concrete form" and reflect the author's "own intellectual creation," resulting from their free and creative choices.

En tant que juriste d’entreprise, vous êtes habitué à donner des réponses, à évaluer les risques juridiques et à participer à la réflexion stratégique. On attend de vous que vous soyez l’expert, celui qui peut clarifier les questions juridiques complexes. Mais si je vous disais qu’il est justement avantageux de ne pas toujours (vouloir) être la personne la plus intelligente dans la pièce ? En fait, il y a une force à choisir consciemment d’être la « personne la plus bête dans la pièce ».

On 5 March 2025, the European Union published the European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS), marking a significant advancement of digital health across the European Union (EU). The regulation will enter into force on 26 March 2025, with its provisions phased in gradually over the coming years. The EHDS is designed to reshape the framework for accessing, exchanging, and utilising health data across the EU, fostering greater interoperability, transparency, and efficiency in health data governance.

In February 2025, the European Commission introduced its first "Omnibus Package," designed to simplify and reduce the administrative burdens related to sustainability reporting and due diligence directives. This package outlines significant amendments to both the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).

In November 2023, Belgium partially transposed Directive (EU) 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (the European Accessibility Act). It was transposed through the Belgian Accessibility Act, amending several books of the Belgian Code of Economic Law (the CEL) and the law of 2 August 2002 on the supervision of the financial sector and financial services.

A hospital decided to proceed with the dismissal of an employee who combined the roles of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Data Protection Officer (DPO). Under the GDPR, a DPO cannot be dismissed or penalised for performing their duties. Although Belgian law and the GDPR do not provide for a specific protection compensation for DPOs, the court awarded a compensation equivalent to three months’ salary.