tag: M&A

A cartel case of key importance is currently awaiting a decision from the General Court of the European Union (GC). If the GC approves the decision of the European Commission, this will open the door for declaring financial investors liable, under cartel law, for the illegal practices of businesses in their portfolio companies, regardless of whether or not the investor was aware of the cartel activities.

The corporate law is based on the “majority principle”: the majority shareholder can control the decisions at the shareholders’ meeting. While the old Companies Act already contained certain exceptions to this principle the new Civil Code broadens the scope of the exceptions. The new Civil Code declares that if a shareholder is “personally interested” in a decision, it is not allowed to vote on the given question. Although the courts’ interpretation of this new provision is not yet known, a conservative interpretation could lead to a substantial weakening of the “majority principle”.