Steptoe & Johnson LLP (LexBlog Germany)

On February 23, 2022, the White House announced sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline following the announcement that Germany would halt certification of the project. Shortly after, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Nord Stream 2 AG and its managing director as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) pursuant to the...

The German Federal Parliament has adopted a new Act on Corporate Due Diligence Responsibilities in Supply Chains (‘the Supply Chain Act’) on Friday, June 11, 2021, due to enter into effect on January 21, 2023. By virtue of the Supply Chain Act, companies with a significant presence in Germany, as further explained below, must ensure...

Yesterday, Judge Preska dismissed a suit seeking to reclaim Picasso’s “The Actor” from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The suit alleged that the painting was sold under duress in the 1930s after its owner at the time, a German Jew, fled the Nazi regime (see our original coverage here).  While the opinion details the plight of the...

Germany has recently boosted its control over undesired foreign investments by introducing an amendment to its Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance, which complements the Foreign Trade and Payments Act. Under the new rules, the acquisition by foreign investors of significant shareholdings in German companies will be subject to an enhanced government control from a public...

Yesterday, two plaintiffs filed a complaint against the German state of Bavaria seeking the return paintings allegedly stolen by the Nazis during the 1930s.  The plaintiffs, heirs to the estate of a Jewish art dealer who fled Germany in 1933, allege that the paintings by Max Beckmann and Paul Klee among others are now in the possession...

The heirs to estate of the former owner of Picasso’s “The Actor” filed a complaint last week alleging that the painting, currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, was sold under duress in the 1930s as its owner at the time, a German Jew, fled the Nazi regime.  The complaint alleges that, but for the Nazis’ policies...

In an opinion Friday, Judge Rakoff ruled that the German state of Bavaria was entitled to sovereign immunity in a suit seeking return of a Picasso painting called Madame Soler that was allegedly the subject of a forced transfer from Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to Justin Thannhauser under the then-Nazi regime in Germany  in 1934. Mr. Thannhauser later relocated...