The Legal 500

In February 2010 the Sentencing Guidelines Council (the SGC) issued definitive guidelines to courts on imposing appropriate sentences for corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences causing death. The SGC states that fines imposed on companies found guilty of corporate manslaughter should not fall below £500,000, while fines in respect of health and safety offences that are a significant cause of death should be at least £100,000. Crucially, the SGC declined to provide for a fixed link between the imposed fine and the turnover or profitability of the offending company.


On 16 September 2011, the Polish Parliament adopted a significant amendment to the Polish Civil Procedure Code (the “Code”). Most of the changes comprising the amendment came into force on 3 May 2012 (the “Amendment”).

M&A transactions and all forms of corporate reorganisations (e.g. mergers, de-mergers, transformations, contributions in-kind) are governed by the Companies Act (CA).

Once again, business law firm Fellner Wratzfeld & Partners (fwp) is among the front-runners in Austria where international rankings are concerned, a fact confirmed by the Chambers Global Guide 2012, which was published in March 2012.

Public bids are regulated under the 1999 Takeover Act (TA), as thoroughly amended by the 2006 TA Amendment Act. The TA applies provided the target is a joint stock corporation (AG) based in Austria and its shares are admitted to trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Boerse; VSE) at a regulated market.

In the course of the second stabilisation package 2012*, the new § 2 b Labour Market Policy Financing Act (Arbeitsmarktpolitik-Finanzierungsgesetz – AMPFG) was agreed upon.

As of 1 April 2012, the Czech Public Procurement Act (Act No. 137/2006 Coll.) has been significantly amended.

Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Parliament marks the first anniversary of the Renewable Energy Law of 2011 with its first amendment

bankruptcy post Amendment to the Slovak Bankruptcy Act

Construction projects are expensive, and they usually end up being more expensive than agreed. The principal often tries to mitigate this risk by concluding a lump-sum contract.

The finance ministers of the European Union met again last week to discuss the plan of introducing a single EU financial transaction tax. According to the plan, a 0.1 percent tax would be levied on bond and capital transactions, while a 0.01 percent tax would be charged on derivatives transactions.