As reported in our November 2018 GT Amsterdam Law blog post, use of an office building without a minimum energy label C (an energy index of 1.3 or better) will be prohibited as of 1 January 2023. In view of this prohibition in the Dutch Buildings Decree, the ROZ (Dutch Real Estate Council) has established a new sustainability/green lease provision for the ROZ model Office Space 2015. The new model clause allows the landlord…

On May 2, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments, which details more than 10 pages of long-standing OFAC practices on corporate economic sanctions compliance programs. With this publication, companies operating internationally are now on notice that compliance program elements that used to be simply “best practices” guidance will now be expected by OFAC. With the recent strengthening of certain sanctions regimes…

Radboud Ribbert from Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Amsterdam office was recently quoted in a Law360 Intellectual Property article. The article focuses on a recent amendment to the Dutch Patents Act (Rijksoctrooiwet) to include a limitation of the exclusive right of the holder of a patent on a medicine, the Pharmacist’s Exemption. The full article can be read here (subscription required).…

On March 26, the parliament of the European Union approved the “Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market”, one of the most heavily disputed legislative acts in EU history. The Directive now has to be approved by the member states in the European Council, which is usually a formality (and will possibly happen on April 9). First published as a draft in 2016 as one of the first activities in the EU’s Digital Single…

Legal scholars have been debating the method by which contractual provisions should be interpreted in the Netherlands since 1981, when the Dutch Supreme Court rendered its landmark Haviltex decision on the interpretation of contracts. Even though numerous relevant Dutch court decisions on contract interpretation have followed, the debate remains quite alive. Irrespective of the applicable law, it is imperative for investors – such as private equity parties – to be precise when drafting exit provisions…

While many are still digesting the changes brought about by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new privacy regulation is already on its way. The Regulation Concerning the Respect for Private Life and the Protection of Personal Data in Electronic Communications – in short, the ePrivacy Regulation  – is currently a draft under discussion (the latest version by the EU Council was published on 13 March 2019). Unlike the GDPR, the draft ePrivacy…

The European Court of Justice ruled on March 14, 2019, that a parent company can in national civil tort proceedings also be held liable for the damage caused by a competition infringement committed by its subsidiary where such parent company (that holds all the shares in the subsidiary) has dissolved its subsidiary but continued the subsidiary’s economic activity. Background In 2004, the Finnish Competition Authority imposed fines on the participants in a Finnish asphalt cartel…