The Legal 500

Legal Developments in Luxembourg

• Getting the Deal Through - Insurance & Reinsurance 2009 - Luxembourg chapter

  Identify the regulatory agencies responsible for regulating insurance and reinsurance companies. The Commissariat aux Assurances (the Commissariat) is in charge of the supervision of insurance and reinsurance undertakings, as well as insurance intermediaries (agents and brokers). It is in charge of examining the applications for licences. The Commissariat also assists the Luxembourg public authorities in European and international negotiations. It takes an active part to the preparation of Luxembourg laws and regulations within its field of competence. The Commissariat is a public establishment vested with legal personality and is financially independent. It is under the authority of the ministry of treasury and budget.
  - KLEYR GRASSO ASSOCIES

• Getting the Deal Through - Dispute Resolution 2009 - Luxembourg Chapter

  What is the structure of the civil court system? The Luxembourg court system is organised according to the principle of ‘double court instance’, pursuant to which any case may be judged twice by two different courts, both upon the factual and legal merits. As a result, a major distinction is to be drawn up between the first degree courts and the courts of appeal.
  - KLEYR GRASSO ASSOCIES

• The Handbook of Competition Enforcement Agencies

  A Global Competition Review special report published in association with: Wildgen
  - Wildgen

• WITHHOLDING TAX ON DIVIDENDS DISTRIBUTED BY A FINNISH COMPANY TO A LUXEMBOURG SICAV IS DISCRIMINATOR

  This judgement gives possibilities to investment funds to claim a refund of withholding taxes unduly paid in the Member States where they made investments.
  - Wildgen

• THE DE LAROSIÈRE REPORT

  The current financial crisis has highlighted the possible side effects of the globalisation and, to a certain extent, proves a certain weakness of the European Union in this respect.
  - Molitor, Fisch & Associés

• Luxembourg-Hong Kong Double Tax Treaty: The Best of Both Worlds

  On 20 January 2009, the bilateral treaty for the avoidance of double taxation between the Hong Kong SAR and the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg (the Treaty) entered into force in both jurisdictions. The Treaty has retroactive effect, and is applicable as from 1 January 2008 with respect to Luxembourg and as from 1 April 2008 with respect to Hong Kong.
  - Wildgen

• DOUBLE TAX TREATY (“DTT”) BETWEEN LUXEMBOURG AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

  Luxembourg currently has 52 double tax treaties in force and 22 in the course of negotiation or ratification. An interesting addition to this is the recently ratified double tax treaty between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Luxembourg (the “DTT”) which aims to enhance economic cooperation between both countries.
  - Wildgen

• Unemployment Benefit in Luxembourg

  In these financially precarious times, it is an unfortunate reality that more and more people in Luxembourg (as elsewhere) are having recourse to unemployment benefit as companies downsize to cope with the crisis. It is important therefore to know our rights to unemployment benefit ( chômage ) often for peace of mind as much for anything else. This article shall deal only with employees ( salariés ). Self-employed people can receive unemployment benefit (contrary to popular opinion) but this shall not be treated here. It must be stated from the outset that social security legislation is horrendously complex and intricate and each particular case must be judged on its merits. A general overview shall, however, try to be given here.
  - Wildgen

• A recently established treaty has eased the passage for investors operating between Asia and Europe

  Earlier this year Luxembourg and Hong Kong put into motion a double taxation treaty offering international investors an interesting tax planning tool for investing into or out of Asia. Structuring investments through these locations has been made easier with this new treaty presenting straightforward opportunities to eliminate or mitigate direct taxes on the flow of income and profits from the countries where the target investment is located to the country where the ultimate investors or their investment vehicles are located.
  - Oostvogels Pfister Feyten

• Luxembourg and the proposed Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFM)

  As part of a legislative package to tackle the financial crisis, the European Commission submitted on 29 April 2009 a Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (“AIFM”) to the European Parliament and to the Council. This proposal emerged rather swiftly following a general consensus across European leaders that AIFM, which managed around EUR 2 trillion in assets at the end of 2008, should be subject to closer regulatory scrutiny. This proposed Directive marks the first attempt to create a comprehensive and effective supervisory and regulatory framework for AIFM in the European Union (“EU”) by imposing on European investment managers of non-UCITS investment funds a common set of rules in terms of licensing and supervision. In return, AIFM would benefit from a European passport for cross-border distribution to EU professional investors. The main innovations focus on the regulatory supervision, the disclosure requirements and the distribution of Alternative Investment Funds (“AIF”). Key elements of the proposed Directive are set out below. However, it should be pointed out that those proposals will only introduce a minimum threshold for Member States, and countries such as France and Germany will probably pass harsher requirements.
  - Chevalier & Sciales