EU - public consultation on the modernisation of company law
The European Commission launched a public consultation on how to improve EU company law.
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The Commission work programme for 2017 announced an initiative on company law to facilitate the use of digital technologies throughout a company’s lifecycle and cross-border mergers and divisions. This consultation seeks views on the scope and content of such an initiative.
The results of previous consultations have shown support among stakeholders for promoting the use of digital tools in company law and for addressing the issue of cross-border operations of companies. The 2015 Conference on Company Law in the Digital Age confirmed this. All the main groups of stakeholders have, in particular, made strong calls for EU action on cross-border conversions, including in the 2009 and 2012 European Parliament Resolutions. Conflict-of-law rules already exist in civil and commercial law for contract, tort and delict, and insolvency, but an important gap remains for the law applicable to companies.
The aim of this public consultation is to collect input from stakeholders on problems in company law, gather evidence of such problems and ask their views on possible solutions on how to address the problems at EU level. The consultation is divided into four parts:
- Part 1: The reasons to act
- Part 2: The use of online tools throughout the companies' lifecycle
- Part 3: The cross-border mobility of companies (mergers, divisions, conversions)
- Part 4: The conflict-of-law rules for companies
The responses will be used to identify which aspects may possibly be addressed in legislative measures and which in other possible complimentary actions in the context of the upcoming company law initiative. However, the results of the consultation are without prejudice to any action the Commission may take in this field.
The responses will be taken into account in the Commission’s impact assessment report in parallel with the results of external studies carried out for the Commission and other available information.
The consultation is open until 6 August 2017.
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