The German Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung – AWV) establishes rules, in particular, concerning the export of weapons, armaments and goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes (so-called dual-use items). An amendment of these national export control regulations, the 21st Ordinance amending the AWV, was adopted by the German federal government on 17 July 2024 and will enter into force shortly. Its key content is the expansion of the national dual-use items list, subjecting certain emerging technologies to unilateral export controls. Below, we provide a brief overview of the planned changes and put them into context.

Take a seat and grab some popcorn. The DMA series, starring the six gatekeepers Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Byte Dance continues. The European Commission has been an active director who has not been exclusively happy with the performance of its main actors. Have business users or end users acted as supporting actors so far or have they only been extras? Here is what happened since the DMA entered into force through the lens of a camera team.

As in the previous Series A 2021 and Series B 2023 financing rounds, BLOMSTEIN also supported the DeepTech company Helsing in its EUR 450 million Series C financing round with regard to foreign direct investment control law.

The 14th package of EU sanctions against Russia, aimed at further increasing economic pressure and tackling sanctions circumvention in response to Russia's continued aggression towards Ukraine, entered into force on 24 June 2024. The new amendments to Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 can be found in Regulation (EU) 2024/1745. In this briefing, we outline the most significant changes.

This briefing is the fifth in a series on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), where BLOMSTEIN addresses the key aspects that (in)directly affect businesses both within and outside the EU, explores its interplay with the existing legislation in Germany (LkSG) and examines interactions with other recently adopted EU legislation (e.g., EUDR and CSRD) which partially set overlapping obligations.

In today’s briefing we explore the main points of convergence and differences between the CSDDD and the upcoming Forced Labour Regulation. We will particularly focus on how these acts complement each other in the pursuit of ensuring corporate responsibility to eradicate forced labour within their value chains.

The European Commission has consented to a German scheme worth around EUR 3 billion designed to foster the development of the Hydrogen Core Network (HCN).  This will play a significant role in realizing the goals of the EU Hydrogen Strategy and the ‘Fit for 55’ package by facilitating the establishment of a hydrogen transmission infrastructure. It is a milestone for promoting the utilization of renewable hydrogen in sectors with high energy consumption like industry and transport.

The EU is heavily dependent on imports of critical raw materials from third countries, and with the growing transition to a digital economy and the increase of environmental concerns, this dependence makes supply chains vulnerable and therefore susceptible to better and more efficient regulation.

In an attempt to address this issue and providing specific dates since its first draft (see our latest Briefing here), the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) has entered into force on May 23rd, 2024, establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw material for the EU’s industry.

Increase of disclosure obligations and stricter deadlines

This briefing is the fourth in a series on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), where BLOMSTEIN addresses the key aspects that (in)directly affect businesses both within and outside the EU, explores its interplay with the existing legislation in Germany (LkSG) and examines interactions with other recently adopted EU legislation (e.g., EUDR and CSRD) which partially set overlapping obligations.

In today’s briefing we explore the main differences and points of convergence of the CSDDD and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), particularly which companies might be affected by both and how to reconcile them.

This briefing gives a short overview of the latest developments in the national German hydrogen strategy. The German government has recently passed the Hydrogen Acceleration Act (Wasserstoffbeschleunigungsgesetz, WasserstoffBG), acknowledging the urgency of a decarbonisation of the German industry sector. We will address the key aspects of the draft legislation.