The Legal 500

On 2 March 2011, the National Labour Council has an advice given in which it proposes that social elections take place from 7 May to 20 May 2012 included.

nu ook van toepassing op onderdanen derde landen

On 1 September 2009, the long-anticipated Social Security Agreement between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of India (the “SSA”) entered into force. The SSA was signed in New Delhi on 3 November 2006 and is considered as a landmark agreement as it was the first treaty of its kind to be signed by the Indian authorities. Therefore it is likely to serve as a benchmark for similar agreements between India and other countries.

In its Sea Judgement of 10 September 2009 (C-573/07), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) further clarifies its “in-house” jurisprudence. More specifically, it goes more deeply into the notion of control. Indeed, following the landmark judgement in the Teckal case, contracting authorities granting a public contract do not have to apply the public procurement rules if the contractor, which is a distinct legal entity, is subject to the same control by the contracting authority as the departments of the contracting authority and if the contractor carries out the essential part of its activities with the controlling local authority or authorities.

TO HANDLE REQUESTS FOR THE ANNULMENT OF RULINGS BY ARBITRATION PANELS ON COMPETITION LAW ISSUES.

ON MAY 15 2009 THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THE BELGIAN COURTS CAN FIND - ON THE BASIS OF ARTICLE 81(2) OF THE EC TREATY - THAT CLAUSES IMPOSING AN EXCLUSIVE PURCHASE OBLIGATION OF MORE THAN FIVE YEARS ARE VOID WITHOUT HAVING TO INVOKE AN INDIVIDUAL EXEMPTION UNDER ARTICLE 81(3) ON THEIR OWN INITIATIVE. THE DECISION CALLS INTO QUESTION THE PUBLIC POLICY NATURE OF ARTICLE 81(3).

In two recent cases (Coditel and Stadtreinigung Hamburg), the ECJ dealt with the so-called “in-house exemption” in procurement matters. This is an exemption to the public procurement rules applicable to a public authority if it awards a contract to another entity (i) if the control exercised by the contracting authority over this entity is similar to that which the authority exercises over its own departments and (ii) if that entity carries out the essential part of its activities with the controlling authority or authorities.

What are the limits on national public procurement law to prevent collusion between tenderers in award procedures? This was the question the ECJ dealt with in its recent Assitur judgment (C-538/07).

In the Oymanns judgment (case C-300/07, 11 June 2009), the ECJ confirmed that German statutory sickness insurance funds are contracting authorities under the procurement Directive 2004/18.

Things change over time. This is also the case in the timesharing business. The European legislator, who is well aware of this and already dealt with this type of business by adopting a directive on 26 October 1994, has recently adopted a new legislative act dealing with timesharing, thus bringing European legislation up-to-date. It was deemed necessary to modify the former European legislation to the evolutions in the business. The outcome is a new timesharing directive that can be considered to be broader in scope than its predecessor whilst based on the same ideas of harmonisation and consumer protection.

In a decision of 17 February 2009, the Labour Court of Brussels took a position on the validity of conditions precedent in stock option plans.

Belgium is a well-known centre for international arbitration. Apart from an excellent stock of well-known international arbitrators the country has a long tradition in arbitration. The Belgian Centre for Mediation and Arbitration (CEPANI/CEPINA) was founded 35 years ago and has become one of Europe’s leading arbitration organizations.

It is a sad but true fact of business life that foreign companies doing business in or with Belgium, just like elsewhere in the world, will sooner or later be involved in disputes with their Belgian counterparty. These disputes cover a broad spectrum of difficulties, ranging from disputes about the delivery of products or services to difficulties arising in the case of joint venture, shareholder, distribution, agency or other relationships.

The Belgian government has adopted new regulations which are expected to fundamentally change the rules on the recovery of legal costs in litigation before the Belgian courts. To date, the courts have had the power to award costs but only on the basis of a very antiquated scale which bore no relation to the actual costs paid by parties to their lawyers. Under the new rules, which will apply as of 1 January 2008, at the request of any party, the court will have the power to award costs on the basis of a new scale which allows for the award of much more realistic amounts.