Upgrading EU Company Law for digital solutions and cross-border operations

Briefing 09-01-2018

Currently, EU company law is partially codified in Directive (EU) 2017/1132 relating to certain aspects of company law. Harmonisation of EU company law is a prerequisite for deploying a fully-fledged digital single market enabling all operators, in particular SMEs, to draw on the potential of the digital economy and to eliminate unnecessary barriers, while safeguarding their rights and providing legal and cyber security. Despite the recent codification and recently amended other pieces of EU company law, problems linked with legal certainty, administrative burden, unnecessary costs for companies resulting in lack of transparency or ineffective protection of companies, still remain. These points were noted and underscored several times by the European Parliament. The European Commission is expected to publish a legislative proposal on an EU company law package on 16 January 2018, potentially addressing digitalisation, cross-border mergers, divisions and conversions, as well as rules on conflict of laws related to company law.