Since October 30, 2025, new regulations on the creation of living space have been in force in the German Building Code (BauGB). At the heart of the changes is the so-called housing construction turbo. In particular, the legislative package facilitates new builds, extensions, redensification and conversions in inner-city locations. The changes can also noticeably speed […]

With a new Packaging Implementation Act (VerpackDG), German law is to be adapted to the EU Packaging Regulation. The Federal Ministry for the Environment presented a draft bill on November 17, 2025. The new law is intended to replace the previous Packaging Act. The draft bill primarily includes an expansion of the system participation obligation […]

Video surveillance of rented properties is only possible under strict legal conditions. More and more owners want to keep an eye on and secure their properties in this way. However, tenants are not always in agreement. While some feel better protected by cameras, others see surveillance as an invasion of their privacy or a professional […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) only benefits the legal department if it is implemented correctly. The technology promises to automate time-consuming routine work and fundamentally improve the quality of legal work through data-supported analyses. However, this enormous potential can only be unleashed if there is a strategy behind it. To this end, the legal department, IT and […]

On November 13, 2025, the EU Parliament voted on its negotiating position regarding the so-called omnibus package, which provides for a relaxation of the CSRD, the CSDDD and the taxonomy. The Parliament’s position goes far beyond the EU Commission’s proposals in many respects. The latter had published the draft of the first announced omnibus package […]

President Trump’s administration has introduced two significant changes to the highly popular H-1B visa program for skilled workers: The previous random lottery will be replaced by a salary-based selection process. And: The US will impose an additional one-time fee of $100,000 for certain H-1B applications. The changes will have a significant impact on employers who […]

AI is a blessing for many companies, but it can also quickly become a curse, especially when authorities use the technology to uncover legal violations by companies. This is exactly what the German Pension Insurance (DRV) intends to do in its company audits. It has developed a tool called KIRA that scans digital documents and […]

In September, the EU Commission wanted to postpone the EUDR deforestation regulation. On October 21, 2025, it published a comprehensive proposal to simplify the EUDR. There is to be no general postponement of the start of application by one year, but rather a variety of graduated measures. Here are the core proposals: Downstream market participants […]

On October 1, 2025, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) updated its technical directives and made a U-turn with regard to the so-called employer-of-record model: In the eyes of the BA, the employment of foreign remote workers should now not require a permit after all. Just under a year earlier, on October 15, 2024, the BA […]

Companies can apply for funding in the preliminary procedure for the climate protection contracts program until 1 December 2025. The funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) is aimed at both traditional energy-intensive industries (including chemicals, paper, cement and glass) and small and medium-sized enterprises that want to convert their production […]