International Briefing July 2024

Dear friends and colleagues,

welcome to the July issue of ADVANT Beiten's International Briefing.

We are pleased to share that the ADVANT alliance has once again been recognised by the prestigious Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500 rankings. This year ADVANT lawyers ranked an impressive 43 times across 23 practice areas in the Chambers Europe Guide 2024. Additionally, the Chambers Global Guide 2024 ranked 8 departments and 13 ADVANT lawyers across multiple practice groups. In the Legal 500 EMEA 2024 rankings, ADVANT's expertise and experience was highlighted in 58 practice areas, with 38 professionals ranked individually and over 100 professionals recommended.

It has been another few busy months for the ADVANT Midwest and Northeast teams as they have travelled to the U.S. for a series of meetings with American law firms and clients to make the unique ADVANT offering known. And the next trips are already planned for September and October. Please be in touch with Barbara Mayer and Hans-Josef Vogel if you would like to meet us on one of the upcoming ADVANT's US strategy trips.

This year ADVANT's China Outbound EU Investment Forum was a great success once again. The forum began early April in Beijing, with further events in Shanghai and Guangzhou throughout the week. ADVANT delegates together with representatives from agencies and high-ranking representatives of Chinese companies discussed developments and challenges of doing business in the EU, such as greenfield investment and distressed M&A, dispute resolution, and cross border employment.

Additionally, for the enterprises registered in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and their shareholders a flyer "China: Revised Company Law", prepared by the team of ADVANT Beiten in China (Susanne Rademacher, Jenna Wang-Metzner, Lelu Li, and Kelly Tang), can be of interest as it flags the issues that must be complied under the revised PRC Company Law and related regulations, which all entered into effect on 1 July 2024.

In circumstances of increasing global economic tensions and protectionism, when every cross-border M&A deal requires analysis under foreign trade law, expertise in this area is becoming more and more important. Christian von Wistinghausen (ADVANT Beiten) was ranked among the 50 leading German foreign direct investment control experts. The full piece can be read online here (subscription required).

We would like to also mention that Andreas Lober (ADVANT Beiten) was quoted in Compliance Week on the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act and the impact on Big Tech across the EU. The full piece can be read online here (subscription required). Please see our Privacy Ticker and Tech Law Briefing for information and updates on IT, the Law of Data, and Intellectual Property. Martin Seevers (ADVANT Beiten) wrote an article for the Yearbook "Perspectives 2024" of the Association of Foreign Banks in Germany, where he talks about changes in requirements for tax compliance in the financial sector as a result of current measures and legislative initiatives in the area of tax transparency and to combat tax evasion and tax fraud.

Among ADVANT publications in this issue we would like to highlight:

ADVANT M&A Deal Point Study. We looked into more than 4,000 data points of our M&A deals from 2023 to keep record of our performance and to be on the lookout of M&A industry trends to provide our clients with the best services. If you wish to read our Deal Point Study, you may request a free copy here.

Overview Q&A: The VAT Group regime in France, Germany and Italy. Philippe de Saint-Bauzel, Marie Darcq (both ADVANT Altana), Markus P. Linnartz, Helmut König (both ADVANT Beiten), Andrea Mantellini, Barbara Aloisi (both ADVANT Nctm) provide an overview of VAT policy requirements and modalities for introducing the VAT Group regime in France, Germany and Italy, as well as covering the advantages and implications.

Despite our busy schedules and work commitment, to foster better connections our teams meet in person as well. Members from the Corporate / M&A practice group from across ADVANT Altana, ADVANT Beiten and ADVANT Nctm met in Freiburg in June for a productive day of workshops and talks, including from ADVANT Beiten practice group coordinators Barbara Mayer and Hans-Josef Vogel as well as Bruno Nogueiro, Lucia Corradi, and Gerhard Manz. It was great to get everyone together for a day of collaboration and fun, and to end the meeting together with a dinner party at the Rieger winery.

In the "local" news: ADVANT Beiten is further expanding its tax practice by welcoming Heiko Wunderlich as equity partner in Munich office from 1 July 2024. We are delighted to have gained another highly experienced and established expert in the market like Heiko Wunderlich, whose tax expertise, particularly in the areas of succession, restructuring and transactions, is an excellent addition to our advisory portfolio both at our Munich office and throughout the firm.

In this edition, of course, we highlight interesting developments in the European and German legal landscape as well.

You can find our briefing here.