SEVIC: beyond cross-border mergers

In SEVIC, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the refusal of a national commercial court to register a cross-border merger may constitute a violation of the freedom of establishment. In the future, this decision will be superseded by the new Cross-Border Merger Directive. Thus, the importance of the SEVIC decision could be doubted. This note, however, shows that SEVIC has significance beyond cross-border mergers, namely with respect to seat transfers, cross-border divisions and cross-border takeovers.