EU benchmarks regulation: The EU Benchmarks Regulation became applicable on 1 January 2018. Under the Regulation, certain types of regulated entities, “supervised entities”, must produce and maintain robust written plans to address material changes to, or cessation of, a benchmark and reflect these in their contractual relationships. In the context of derivatives, ISDA published the ISDA Benchmarks Supplement in September to assist market participants in complying with this obligation. The Regulation also mandates disclosure of the registration status of the benchmark administrator in prospectuses required under the Prospectus Directive or UCITS Directive. While transitional provisions currently apply in many cases, the Regulation restricts use of benchmarks by supervised entities to those for which the administrator has been registered.
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PRIIPs regulation: PRIIPs started to apply in January imposing requirements for pre-contractual, standardised disclosure for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products.

New Companies & Association Code - Final approval: The draft new Companies and Associations Code was adopted in second reading at parliamentary commission level on 27 November 2018. The last legislative step is approval in plenary session which is expected to take place before the end of 2018. See our Year to come for more info. 

Corporate income tax reform: The general corporate income tax rate has been reduced from 33.99% to 29.58% (and it will be further reduced to 25% in 2020) and the dividend received deduction has been increased from 95% to 100%. “Compensating measures” were introduced as well, such as a limitation on the use of carried forward tax assets.
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New mandatory EU disclosure rules (DAC6): Pursuant to the new EU Directive, EU intermediaries must disclose reportable cross-border arrangements to the tax authorities as of 2020, provided that at least one of the pre-defined so-called ‘hallmarks’ is met. The information received on the reported transactions will be automatically exchanged among EU Member States. The first arrangements reportable in 2020 will be those with a first implementation step as of 25 June 2018.

Introduction of the Profit premium: Bonuses have become a common practice and different reward systems exist in Belgium. The profit premium is a new – popular – bonus system, introduced as from the beginning of this year, which is easy to implement, exempted from social security and to which a lower tax rate applies. For further info – see our newsletter.

New notice periods for employees with less than six months’ service: To a certain extent, the increased progressivity introduced by the law implicitly revives the old regime of trial periods (the concept of a trial period has been abolished in Belgian employment law since 2014). For further information – see our newsletter.

Parental, medical assistance and palliative leave: Since the beginning of October, the legislator has created flexibility for employees through thematic leaves (e.g. no fixed day per week anymore). Also, an employee taking parental leave can now reduce working time by 1/10th. Previously, this could only be done full-time, at half-time or at 1/5th of the time.

New rules on zoning and environmental law: The Flemish Decree with respect to zoning and environmental law (the “Codex train”) was adopted in December 2017 with a phased entry into force. As of 1 August 2018 the single permit, which already included the building permit, the allotment permit and the environmental permit, also contains the socio-economic permit and the permit for the modification of vegetation (previously the nature permit). Finally, the Flemish Decree of 25 April 2014 on the enforcement of the single permit entered into force on 1 March 2018 bringing new enforcement rules with respect to the single permit.

Further regionalisation of the lease legislation: On 1 July 2014, leases became regional matters. In 2017 the Brussels Region adopted its new Ordinance regulating housing leases which came into force on 1 January 2018. In the Walloon Region (i) a new Decree on residential leases came into force on 1 September 2018, and (ii) a new Decree on short-term commercial leases came into force on 1 May 2018. In the Flemish Region, entry into force of the Decree on residential leases on 18 May 2018 was postponed until 2019.

Co-ownership in Real Estate: The management and decision-making processes of co-ownerships are being amended, with effect as from 1 January 2019. The main changes include (i) the softening of certain decision-making majority requirements, (ii) the (limited) possibility for the signatories of the initial co-ownership statutes to amend the statutes before the provisional delivery of the common parts and (iii) the reservation of the right to vote to the paying co-owners, in relation to parts of the costs borne only by part of the co-owners.

Adoption of new Walloon Soil Decree: The Walloon Decree on Soil adopted on 1 March 2018 introduces soil information obligations in the event of a transfer of land in the Walloon Region, (the transfer of land is defined in a broad sense). The new rules will come into force on 1 January 2019.

Dawn raids: The Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) conducted dawn raids in the cosmetics, fire protection and pharma sectors. Two were conducted in cooperation with other national competition authorities. Concurrently, the Supreme Court subjected dawn raids to greater scrutiny, ruling that dawn raids without a prior judicial warrant are unlawful, and that any evidence seized during unlawful raids may not be used.

Joint lobbying: The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal which held that joint lobbying does not constitute an illegal concerted practice because it takes place outside of the market. In 2013 the BCA, whose decision was annulled on appeal, had fined cement producers, their professional association, and a non-profit organisation in charge of standardisation in the cement industry for jointly lobbying the Belgian authorities. This was done with the aim of delaying the approval process of a specific form of ready-made-cement, thereby excluding a potential new entrant from the market.