Fresh S.A. Law On Related Party Transactions

The fresh law on S.A. companies (L. 4548/2018) amends broadly the regime on related party transactions, i.e. transactions with parties that could exercise control or illicit influence towards the company. Thus, pursuant to the fresh law, the competent corporate body for the granting of permission for related party transactions is in principle the Board of Directors, in contradiction with the previous legislation regime providing exclusive competence of the General Assembly. However, according to the fresh law regime, the competence of the General Assembly is preserved, if the Board of Directors cannot resolve on the matter e.g. in case of conflict of interest of the majority of its members, or if this is sought (within the time frame provided by the law) from a minority of 5% of the share capital, whilst in case of pertinent provision in the company’s Articles of Association, such percentage may be further reduced, but not less than 1% of the share capital.