After some delay, the new Pledge Act finally came into force on 1 January 2018[1]. This new legal framework introduced the ‘registered pledge’. This kind of pledge becomes valid and opposable without requiring a dispossession. This implies that the pledgor can remain in possession of the pledged goods. To make this pledge opposable to third parties, it needs to be registered in the ‘national pledge registry’ that has been set up for that purpose (https://pangafin.belgium.be/#?lang=NL). The pledge registry is publicly accessible: any person who holds a Belgian electronic identity card is able to conduct searches in the pledge registry. Every…
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Acquisition agreements are often preceded by some preliminary agreement (also called a declaration of intent; letter of intent; memorandum of understanding; agreement in principle, etc.) that not seldom is considered as non-binding by the parties. Such initial document aims at describing the status of the negotiations, the agreed principles, and any further steps required to arrive at a final acquisition agreement. Parties who do not yet wish to enter into a binding agreement must make an explicit statement to that effect in the preliminary agreement. If they fail to do so and then reach an agreement on the subject of the…
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