News & Articles

02/12/11

ECHA issues a draft of its first Community Rolling Action Plan for substance evaluation

ECHA delivered its homework on time by releasing, before its December 1st 2011 deadline imposed by REACH, a draft for a first Community Rolling Acti…

01/12/11

Antwerp Court of Appeal Orders Belgacom and Telenet to Block Access to File-sharing “Pirate Bay” Websites

The Antwerp Court of Appeal overturned a judgment of the President of the Commercial Court of Antwerp of 28 September 2011 by ordering internet provid…

01/12/11

Un pas en avant dans la répression de la contrefaçon et de la piraterie en Belgique

Depuis 2007, la Belgique s’est dotée d’une législation permettant aux autorités de lutter de manière plus efficace contre la production et la commer…

01/12/11

Constitutional Court Rules on Language Use on Labels, Operation Instructions and Certificates of Guarantee

On 5 October 2011, the Constitutional Court ruled on the use of language on labels, operation instructions and certificates of guarantee.

01/12/11

EU Court Holds that Appeal by Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats Against Commission’s EDF/Segebel Merger Decision is Ina…

On 12 October 2011, the General Court held that an appeal by Belgian consumer organization Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats ("TA") against the European Commis…

28/11/11

Anything posted on Facebook can be used against you

On 17 November 2011, the Leuven labour court ruled in favour of the lawful dismissal for serious cause of an employee who posted comments on Facebook …

28/11/11

Réforme du financement des pensions des fonctionnaires nommés au niveau local

La plupart des administrations provinciales et locales (ex.: les provinces, les communes, les intercommunales, les CPAS) financent la pension légale d…

25/11/11

Salary thresholds 2012 published

The indexed salary thresholds have been published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 22 November 2011. The new amounts for 2012 are 31.467 EUR, 37.721…

25/11/11

Case Scarlet

In its ruling of the 24th of November, in the case Scarlet Extended SA v SABAM (C-70/10), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stated tha…

24/11/11

Flanders introduces new rules on the tax free transfer of family businesses

The Flemish Government has recently introduced a Project Act concerning the 2012 budget with the Flemish Parliament. This Project Act also includes ne…

23/11/11

Replacement of public holidays in 2012 – be on time !

In Belgium, employees are not allowed to work on 10 official public holidays per year. In 2012, the 10 official public holidays will be as follows:

21/11/11

New notice periods as from 2012 and harmonization of the blue-collar workers & the white-collar workers’ s…

The new notice periods are specified in the Act of 12 April 20111 , adopted as a result of the rejection by the unions of the draft Inter-professional…

17/11/11

Focus on Social Elections Step By Step

The social elections for the designation of the representatives of the workers at the works’ council (“WC”) and the committee for prevention and prote…

16/11/11

Social security agreement between Belgium and Argentina

Belgium and Argentina recently signed a social security agreement which has been submitted for ratification. This agreement will have major consequenc…

14/11/11

Reforms to EU’s GSP scheme discussed in European Parliament trade committee

10/11/11

Important Changes to the Financial Collateral Act

Since the entry into force of the Financial Collateral Act of 15 December 2004 (the "Collateral Act") implementing Directive 2002/47/EC on financial c…

09/11/11

Complex procurements: also through competitive dialogue

The highly anticipated measures establishing the competitive dialogue procedure for public procurement were published in the Belgian Official Journal …

05/11/11

Women’s quota in Belgian Corporate Law

Published on 14 September 2011, the Law of 28 July 2011 (1) (hereafter “the Law”) guarantees women a minimum representation percentage in the board of…

04/11/11

Silence is not always golden: consequences of not reporting an aggravation of a risk

Not informing the insurer about an aggravation of a risk could, upon an occurrence of the risk, entitle the insurer to reduce cover by reference to th…

04/11/11

The wilful misconduct of the insured: discussion and consequences

Insurers often attempt to challenge the insurance coverage by raising the argument of wilful misconduct committed by the insured. Discussions mainly f…