The Finnish Supreme Court held in its decision rendered on 1 June 2007 (KKO:2007:50) that during an employment relationship an employer and employee can not validly agree upon terms according to which the employee waives rights or benefits provided by the mandatory provisions of the Working Hours Act (605/1996).

On 19 April 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a preliminary ruling (Case C-523/10 Wintersteiger AG v Products 4U Sondermaschinenbau GmbH) on the relationship between jurisdiction and a country-specific search engine website.

The Finnish Parliament has recently adopted amendments to the Act on Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out (FI: laki tilaajan selvitysvelvollisuudesta ja vastuusta ulkopuolista työvoimaa käytettäessä; 1233/2006) and to the Act on Public Procurement (FI: laki julkisista hankinnoista; 348/2007).

The Finnish Data Ombudsman ruled in November that employers can not use information on their current employees or prospective hires which is obtained by using Internet search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. Employers must collect employee’s personal information primarily from the employee; use of other sources assumes consent from the employee.

The Ministry of Finance recently issued the Report of the Prospectus Liability Working Group (the "Report") concluding that the current Finnish laws regulating prospectus liability are insufficient mainly because of lack of clarity and that they need to be revised.

Traditionally, legal mergers between companies from different EU member states have not been possible, even though this has not prevented the use of the word “merger” in various contexts related to cross-border acquisitions.

In little more than two years the Finnish real estate investment market has virtually exploded in an astonishingly rapid development from a dormant domestic market to one of the most dynamic real estate markets in northern Europe.

On 14 June 2011 the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") gave its ruling in the Pfleiderer case (C-360/09).

The legal investigation of a target company in M&A transactions, i.e. a "legal due diligence", has traditionally been performed on behalf of the potential purchaser

The new Finnish Companies (the Act) entered into force on 1 September 2006. The operating freedom of companies increases with the removal of different restrictions and formal requirements as well as the introduction of new operating methods.

A Ministry of Justice working group has proposed radical amendments to the regulation of Finnish limited liability companies.

There has been a recent surge of public M&A transactions in Sweden. One of the aspects that have been widely debated in connection with several recent public bids have been the use of legal mergers as a substitute for mandatory redemption procedures to reach 100% ownership following a takeover bid.

A Committee, appointed by the Swedish Government in autumn 2004 to contemplate the need to introduce amendments to the Swedish Competition Act (hereinafter the “Competition Act”), has recently delivered its final Report to the Swedish Secretary for Trade and Industry.

The most significant changes in the Finnish tax system in the past ten years became effective on 1 January 2005.

The Council Directive 2005/19/EC of 17 February 2005 amended the Directive 90/434/EEC 1990 (the "Merger Directive") on the common system of taxation applicable to mergers, divisions, transfers of assets and exchanges of shares concerning companies of different Member States.

The articles of association of a Swedish company may include provisions on pre-emptive rights, to the effect that a purchaser is obliged to offer a purchased share to other shareholders for pre-emption (Swe: hembudsforbehall, Fi: lunastuslauseke).

A commentary on the dispute resolution preferences of clients in the Nordic region.

The Commission has imposed a total fine of EUR 676 million on 9 groups - ENI, ExxonMobil, Hansen & Rosenthal, Tudapetrol, MOL, Repsol, Sasol, RWE and Total - for participating in a paraffin wax cartel in the EEA between 1992 and 2005 in violation of Article 81 of the EC Treaty.