COMI – Luxembourg Technical Analysis & Case Law Critique

This article deals with the insolvency concept of the center of main interests (COMI) under the European Union insolvency legislation, in particular Regulation 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings (the Insolvency Regulation or the Regulation).

Pursuant to the Insolvency Regulation COMI is one of the central unified and autonomous concepts¹ of the insolvent debtor, i.e. it is an insolvency concept and not a corporate law or tax concept.

It is important to make a distinction between (i) the real seat of a company for the sake of Luxembourg corporate law, (ii) the effective management concept approach often taken with respect to the jurisdiction with taxation rights of a company, and (iii) the COMI concept, being the sole concept considered in this article.