Insider trading, market abuse and related offenses.

What is an insider trading?

Insider trading is the trading of securities by individual with access to confidential or non-public information about the company.

Although the Capital Market Law of 2019 doesn’t give a clear definition of the offense on its article 58, it redirects to the nature of confidential information the insider trading takes advantage from.

Inside information relates to particular securities, specific or precise, likely to have an impact on the price of any security if made public.

Learn more (on laws instruments, lawyers in charge, etc.)

The application of the Revised Labor Code of 2020, on employment contracts and court cases arisen after its promulgation

The article 637 provides as follows:

The provisions of this Code apply immediately to current employment contracts without, however, having the effect of reducing the benefits acquired by the workers concerned.

Here is how we understand it: the employment contracts concluded before the revision of the Labor Code of 1993 cannot hide behind the latter if it’s not only for the benefits they get from it.

For example, if an employment contract concluded under the Labor Code of 1993 grants to an employee the possibility to take 30 days of leave instead of the legal 20 days and before a year of employment, the revised Labor Code won’t take these advantages from the employee.

But if an employment contract has been verbally concluded before the Revised Labor Code, it cannot hide behind the fact that it was concluded under a law which permitted it (1993) and before the revised one says otherwise. Therefore, it has to be updated according to the Revised Labor Code.

The impact of the 2020 Revised Labor Code get tricky when it comes to damages granted to an employee who has been unlawfully dismissed. The 1993 Code allowed the Courts to grant to the dismissed employee the compensation they deem fit according to the damage due to the unlawful termination of the employment contract (article 63).

But, for a long time, and a number of multiple cases, the Courts automatically granted up to 6-month salary of compensation for every worked year the employee had under his belt. That’s why the 2020 Code came up with a formula which has to take into account the age, the salary, the seniority of service and a cap of 36 monthly salaries.

The question then was, among others, whether or not the revised code formula was to be applied to cases pending before court before its promulgation. Our answer is an undoubtful and bold yes, the 2020 Code applies on the damages calculation for cases pending before its promulgation.

Here is why.

Primo, the article 638 states that all the previous provisions contrary to this Code are repealed. It includes the article 63 of the 1993 Code which is abstract and clearly contrary to the concrete and arithmetic formula of the article 158 of the new Code;

Secundo, the article 637 of the new Code states that it applies immediately – not only – on the current employment contracts, and not on cases pending before courts, which have been already terminated and are requesting damages;

In fine, the article 158 of the new Code allows the Judges to be impartial, since they won’t need to take position on the absence of damages the employer may put out and the possible exaggeration of the damage from the dismissed and somehow hurt employee’s point of view.

Many cases are pending before the Supreme Court on that matter. Time shall tell.