The 14th edition of German legal publishing house C.H. Beck’s “Prozessformularbuch” (book of litigation forms) has been published and is available for purchase now. Three BLOMSTEIN lawyers have contributed to the publication, which has become a standard reference, as authors.

On 11 December 2017, a Council Decision finally established the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) in defence. The Council Decision was ultimately approved by 25 Member States, less than a month after a joint notification by the ministers of 23 Member States on their intention to participate. Along with the Council Decision, the participating Member States published an initial list of collaborative PESCO projects. These include research, procurement and upgrade projects regarding a variety of sectors, including prototypes for infantry vehicles, autonomous maritime surveillance systems and mine countermeasures, cyber security, radio and indirect fire support solutions, logistic hubs, operational support, military mobility measures and the establishment of a European Medical HQ, as well as training centres.

The pending implementation of PESCO for European defence projects raises a number of questions. We will focus on the effects on future defence procurement.

Can suppliers prohibit their authorised distributors from selling luxury products on third-party platforms such as Amazon or eBay? In its judgement of 6 December 2017 (Case C-230/16 – Coty), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) finally had the chance to shed some light on this highly-debated issue. Both suppliers and distributors have waited with great anticipation for a clarification from Luxembourg. The ECJ now took a supplier-friendly stance and confirmed that platform bans for luxury goods are not per se anticompetitive.

On 13 October 2017, President Trump refused to “recertify” the international nuclear understanding with Iran (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA).

On 31 October 2017, 41 individuals and entities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been designated under US terrorism sanctions. These new designations are part of a growing trend towards unilateral US sanctions imposed without prior consultation or coordination at an international level.

In the following, we give an overview of this trend, taking the recent US developments regarding the JCPOA and the US sanctions on Russia as examples. We examine the potential repercussions of these US sanctions for EU companies and potential reactions by the EU.

We are proud to have been announced as the winner in two categories of the prestigious JUVE awards on 26 October 2017 at a gala ceremony hosted by the legal publishing house JUVE at the Opera house in Frankfurt. BLOMSTEIN was awarded the Start-Up of the Year award and the Law Firm of the Year for Public Procurement Law already in our first year on the market. The JUVE Awards are considered the most prestigious industry awards in the German legal market.

„The Berlin based boutique that opened in 2016 has already become a well-established market player. Competitors rave about the ‘excellent legal expertise combined with international experience’ of the Freshfields-Spin-off. ‘Combining the practice groups Public Procurement, Antitrust and State Aid plays out extremely well.’“

The control of foreign investments has become increasingly important in the last few years. In Germany, the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung – AWV) has recently been amended. Moreover, for the first time, foreign investments in Germany were prohibited. In the USA, prohibitions have increasingly been issued by CFIUS and extremely long durations of proceedings are being reported. On the initiative of Germany, France and Italy, the European Commission (Commission) has now also taken up the issue: On 13 September 2017, the Commission submitted a Proposal for a Regulation Establishing a Framework for Screening of Foreign Direct Investments into the European Union (Regulation Proposal).

At this year’s Colloquium on Suspension and Debarment, hosted by The World Bank in Washington, D.C. on 14 September 2017, recent developments in suspension and debarment issues worldwide and their various uses in the context of procurement and anti-corruption were examined.

BLOMSTEIN is proud to be shortlisted in two out of eighteen categories for the 2017 JUVE Awards: The Start-Up of the Year (Gründerzeit-Award) and the Law Firm of the Year for Regulated Industries. The winners will be announced on 26 October 2017 at a Gala ceremony hosted by the legal publishing house JUVE at the Opera house in Frankfurt. The JUVE Awards are considered the most prestigious industry awards in the German legal market.

The idea of a nationwide “register of corruption” which, among other things, registers white-collar crimes and respective administrative offences has haunted the German procurement law world for years. A bill bringing this idea to fruition was recently passed. The register must be established by 31 December 2020 and will replace the existing registers of some of the German federal states. Before awarding a contract, contracting authorities must consult the register and may exclude companies with a high degree of legal certainty on the basis that the company is listed on the register. Besides administering registrations, the German Federal Cartel Office as the responsible registration authority will also evaluate whether a registered company has implemented sufficient self-cleaning measures. In this case, the company will be removed from the register and be able to participate in public procurement procedures again. The implementation of this bill will have far-reaching impacts on procurement law practice in Germany.

In light of the recent media reports on possible cartel allegations against German car manufacturers, our partner Anna Blume Huttenlauch was interviewed by Deutsche Welle on the fine line between legal cooperations among competitors and illegal collusion as well as potential fines and other liability risks for companies involved in cartels.

Link to the interview in English
Link to the entire program in English