Insights

On 20 January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order relating to Pillar II (link). It is no surprise that the new administration, as part of the broader trade policy, withdraws the support of the US for the Global Tax Deal's Pillar II. More interesting, the Secretary of Treasury is tasked with proposing protective measures against countries that do not comply with US tax treaties or have in place, or are likely to have in place, perceived extraterritorial taxes that affect US companies. These seem to include countries that would apply the UTPR (Undertaxed Profits Rule) to profits of US group companies. While the way the new administration announced the order and measures seems to be strongly political, the compatibility of the (extraterritorial) UTPR with tax treaties has been questioned before.

2024 was a very productive year for the UPC. While many important and interesting decisions were handed down, we have selected five that we believe stand out the most.

Helen Gornall and Marloes Wantenaar have written an article about the judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) - issued on 19 September 2024 - in Booking.com BV and Booking.com (Deutschland) GmbH v 25hours Hotel Company Berlin GmbH and Others. Helen and Marloes represented Booking.com in these proceedings.

De Brauw advised Assicurazioni Generali SpA, a leading global integrated insurer and asset manager, on the combination of its asset management operations with Natixis Investment Managers, part of Groupe BPCE, a leading French banking group. The deal is valued at EUR 9.5 billion.

De Brauw advises Pontegadea, the investment vehicle of Inditex founder Amancio Ortega and focused on a wide range of sectors as real estate, energy, infrastructure or retail, on the acquisition of a 20% stake in Q-Park from its existing majority shareholder KKR. Q-Park is a leading European parking infrastructure owner and operator, with a large and diversified portfolio of approximately 4,400 owned, leased and managed parking facilities in The Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. Q-Park focuses on off-street, strategic prime locations and works together with municipalities and landlords to implement sustainable urban mobility plans, leveraging its industry-leading digital capabilities, strategic growth framework and its sizeable and rapidly expanding EV charging offering.

On 18 December 2024, FrieslandCampina and Milcobel announced their intention to merge. De Brauw assists FrieslandCampina on this important step in the joint future of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel. By combining their forces, a leading dairy cooperative and dairy company will be created. The merger is intended to provide a strong foundation for a future-oriented organisation that has dairy front and centre for member dairy farmers, employees, consumers, and customers.