Insights

Brussels and Doha – April 1, 2024: The Legal 500 Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) 2024 edition has recognized 16 practice areas and 11 lawyers in Crowell & Moring’s Brussels and Doha offices. The 11 individual lawyers received 18 total rankings across the 16 different practice areas.

A number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024. On the one hand, there are new laws that have been adopted and will start to bite, and, on the other, there are proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

Last Thursday, Deminor closed the registration for its new Arco case in view of the upcoming time-bar in January 2023. The Arco case, which commands much media attention, concerns an investor dispute in which 800,000 Arco shareholders are at risk of losing their full investment after Dexia’s bankruptcy in 2011. The investors allege among others that the contracts concluded with the Arco companies are null and void on the basis of fraud (or at least error).

On 29 September 2022, a panel discussion on new development in space law and arbitration was held in the context of the second World Arbitration Update conference (see www.worldarbitrationupdate.com). The key take-away from the panel discussion was that the space industry is currently booming and that it will face a likely rise in the number of disputes between commercial space actors.

Class actions and their (possible) role in European law jurisdictions have been a hot topic for quite a while and this is not likely to change. The new EU directive 2020/1828 imposes the obligation upon EU member states to introduce a specific legal procedure for collective repair by 25 June 2023. In Belgium, such a procedure for collective repair was already introduced in 2014. With the imminent implementation of said EU directive into Belgian law, this procedure is likely to undergo some substantial changes. During this in-person seminar, Werner Eyskens, Evelien Van Espen, Yaël Rager and Charlotte Stynen will discuss the current and future role of class actions in Belgium, the contours of the existing procedure for collective repair and the potential impact of the expected new rules, as well as the role of third-party litigation funding and the fate of collective proceedings that fall outside the scope of the existing procedure and the new directive.

Traditionally, space law was mainly limited to States and international organizations, but now the “commercialization” of Space is steep and accelerating.  In a report dated May 2022, Citi expects the space industry to reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040, after the global space economy’s value reached $424 billion in 2020, having expanded 70% since 2010.  Whereas State actors were the only real driving forces behind the development of Space activities until about 15 years ago, private interests have no doubt driven the development of this nascent industry.