An important judgement of 13 December 2005 by the European Court in Sevic finds that the freedom of establishment under the EC Treaty applies directly to cross-border mergers without any need for directives on the matter, as mergers are to be deemed a method of establishment. This contribution analyses the judgment’s far reaching consequences, among them the fact that by analogy, commercial legal persons will be able to transfer from one country to another or to be the object of cross-border divisions by direct application of the principle of freedom of establishment under the Treaty, in other words without any need for harmonisation directives.
European Company Law