Future superbank
The planned merger of three banks into a new Hungarian bank holding (a so-called superbank ) was announced in Spring 2020. Budapest Bank, MKB Bank and the savings group Takarékbank will be owned by the newly created Magyar Bankholding and will thereby form the second largest banking group in Hungary after OTP Bank.
Government s power to exempt certain mergers from scrutiny – what this means in practice
Normally, such a merger would require competition authority approval. However, pursuant to a 2013 amendment to the Competition Act, in matters relevant to the public interest (ie, to preserve jobs and assure security of supplies), the government can declare that a certain concentration of companies is strategically important at a national level. Such a declaration must be ordered on a case-by-case basis by way of a government decree. This exempts certain specific mergers from the Hungarian Competition Authority s (HCA s) scrutiny (ie, merging parties have no obl
The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) has opened an investigation and conducted dawn raids at the premises of importers and wholesalers of consumer electronics for possible anti-competitive agreements concerning resale price maintenance. Based on a preliminary assessment, the CPC believes that importers and wholesalers imposed price restrictions on retailers.
With the end of the Brexit implementation period comes the end of the free movement of persons. This is the case irrespective of the fact that the United Kingdom has secured a trade deal with the European Union. Employers and individuals must digest what the new immigration rules look like, both for EEA and Swiss nationals (aside from Irish nationals) wishing to come to the United Kingdom and British nationals wishing to go to the continent.
Introduction
In August 2020 the Central District Court dismissed several requests for the certification of various class actions which had been filed against different airlines on the basis that statutory damages under the Israeli Aviation Services Law (ASL) (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellation or Change of Conditions) 2012(1) cannot be claimed in class actions.
In all of the class action requests, similar responses were raised by the airlines. The main argument was that according to the Class Action Law 2016, the court cannot award compensation where proof of damage is not required.
Preliminary motions
In some of the cases, the airlines filed a preliminary motion to dismiss the certification motion prior to filing a response to the merits. In some cases, this preliminary argument was raised within the response.
On 29 January 2020 the Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Labour Court ruled on the effectiveness of a cut-off date clause in a works agreement (4 Sa 1456/19). The court held that a special payment to an employee intended to reward both loyalty and performance can be dependent on the existence of the employment relationship on a certain cut-off date.
Background
The plaintiff had worked for the defendant as an employee from 2012 until 2018. On 30 November 2018 the employment relationship ended as a result of a termination by the plaintiff. The plaintiff requested from the defendant the payout of an annual special payment for 2018.
The defendant and its works council had concluded a works agreement on an annual special payment for employees to reward both company loyalty and performance. However, only employees whose employment relationship still existed on 1 January of the year following the end of the bonus period were entitled to this payment. Since the plaintiff s employment relationsh