Partnerblog

De afgelopen jaren zijn tal van nieuwe wetten aangenomen die een impact hebben op het opstellen van commerciële contracten, zoals de inwerkingtreding van Boek 5 van het nieuwe Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW) op 1 januari 2023 maar ook de Arbeidsdeal en andere arbeidsrechtelijke wetgeving.

The social partners have agreed that from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2025, employers and employees in all sectors will again be able to make use of additional voluntary overtime, or "relance hours". 

Copyrights are very prone to large-scale infringements in the digital world. The European Commission addressed rightsholders’ concerns in this regard through Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (CDSM Directive), which was implemented in Belgium by the act of 19 June 2022 (the Act).

Sinds juni 2022 is de nieuwe garantieregeling voor consumenten van kracht, wat betekent dat consumenten nu beter beschermd zijn tegen producten en diensten die in Europa niet conform zijn. De nieuwe regeling is het resultaat van een herziening van de Europese regelgeving.

Article 15(3) GDPR provides that, at the request of the data subject, the controller must provide a “copy” of the personal data that have been processed and, if the request is made electronically, provide the “information” in a commonly used electronic form.

Een bedrijfsjurist moet van alle markten thuis zijn. Dat betekent dat hij zijn juridische kennis moet combineren met andere vaardigheden.

Based on our two decades of experience as a trusted legal recruitment partner, we've seen legal departments go through some major changes.

On 22 March, the European Commission published its Proposal for a Directive on Green Claims (“Green Claims Proposal”). The key objective of the Green Claims Proposal is to combat “greenwashing” and to enable consumers to contribute in accelerating the green transition by making informed purchasing decisions based on credible environmental claims and labels.

On 28 April 2023 a royal decree was published in the Belgian Official Gazette which offers companies that achieved (exceptionally) high profits in 2022 the possibility to grant a purchasing power premium to their employees.

De Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming, beter bekend als de “GDPR”, staat al sinds haar inwerkingtreding in 2018 wereldwijd bekend om haar strikte sanctieregeling. Zo kunnen onder meer boetes opgelegd worden die tot 20 miljoen euro of 4% van de wereldwijde jaaromzet van de inbreukmakende verantwoordelijke kunnen oplopen.

Corporate legal departments are facing challenges such as decreasing budgets, increasing workloads, and pressure to provide more cost-effective legal services. In fact, 92% of organisations say they are changing the way the legal function operates and taking steps to address the most pressing challenges. 

The current instruments - in the form of the EU merger control and EU state aid rules - do not provide sufficient protection against the specific problems and unfair competition that non-EU subsidies bring.

The new Foreign Subsidies Regulation ('FSR' or 'Regulation') entered into force on 12 January 2023. Under this Regulation, the European Commission ('Commission') has far-reaching powers to block mergers, acquisitions and joint-ventures ('mergers') and bids in public tenders and even retroactively dissolve certain mergers where foreign investment distorts competition in the EU internal market.

Ever since the public launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the world has been gasping at the astonishing accomplishments of this generative AI chatbot:  a simple “prompt” in the form of a question (“which are the most important decisions of the CJEU in copyright?”) will receive a credible response within seconds (“The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued several important decisions in the field of copyright law.

In a noble attempt to address distortions caused by foreign subsidies to the detriment of fair competition, the EU has introduced the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (‘FSR’), which will take its full effect on 12 October 2023.

Op 16 maart 2023 keurde de Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers een wetsontwerp goed "tot wijziging van de wet van 3 juli 1978 betreffende de arbeidsovereenkomsten met het oog op de beperking van de duur van opeenvolgende arbeidsovereenkomsten voor een bepaalde tijd en vervangingsovereenkomsten".