The Legal 500

AKD assists Eurofins Scientific Group with the acquisition of Laboratorium Zeeuws-Vlaanderen B.V. and ALTIC B.V.”

Despite the implementation of Directive 2000/35/EC on combating late payment in commercial transactions in 2002, the European Commission (the “Commission”) concluded in 2008 that late payments were still widespread in the EU. It also turned out that public authorities in certain Member States were stipulating unjustifiably long contractual payment periods for transactions.

On 1 March 2012 the Collective Redundancy Notification Act (Wet Melding Collective Outslug, "WACO") will be amended. What changes does this involve?

In the field of corporate law, there are four (coming) Acts that attract attention, namely the introduction of the tenth book of the Dutch Civil Code, the amendment of the Marital Property Act and, to conclude, the coming entry into effect of the Management and Supervision Act and the Flexibilization of BV Act. Please find below a short explanation of each Act.

Attaching maritime assets in insolvency

In most jurisdictions, under the universal approach to cross-border insolvencies a mortgagee cannot enforce a mortgage without the consent of the administrator. However, the Netherlands is an exception in this regard, and allows a mortgagee to enforce mortgages even if the debtor is insolvent.

The employment of foreign workers regularly raises questions. A brief summary of the most important areas of attention will be dealt with in this article.

A non-solicitation agreement usually restricts the ability of an employee - after an employment contract has ended - to approach the clients of the former employer. The former employee of a software company recently discovered that the scope of such an agreement can also include contacts made via LinkedIn.

Few jurisdictions can boast a foreign direct investment record like the Netherlands. As the world's seventh largest inward receiver of investments, housing approximately 9000 foreign-owned companies, the country's dynamic business environment provides an invaluable insight into macro investment trends.

The Netherlands and Dutch law The Netherlands is a perfect business location for foreign entrepreneurs (2,000 subsidiaries in Amsterdam, 140,000 jobs). It is the gateway to densely populated Western Europe and has a well-developed logistic and technical infrastructure.

Dutch Law distinguishes two categories of commercial premises. Depending on the type of premises or the purpose for which it is used, they are referred to as:

1.  so-called “290-premises”. This category includes shops, restaurants, hotels and other premises that all have in common that they are open to the public;

2.  so-called “230a-premises”. This is a separate category for premises that do not qualify as 290-premises or as (private) residential premises. Offices, for example, are 230a-premises.