LUXEMBOURG Law and Practice Contributed by: Elisabeth Omes, Stephen De Ron and Lorenzo Cappelli, Elvinger Hoss Prussen
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position A creditor has several means for identifying or locating a debtor’s assets in Luxembourg. The available options depend on the nature of the assets concerned and the type of enforceable title held by the creditor. Where appropriate, the assistance of a private investigator may also be useful in locating assets that are not recorded in public registers. Land Ownership and Real Estate The Luxembourg Land Registry & Topography Admin - istration ( Administration du cadastre et de la topog- raphie – ACT) is an official government agency and maintains records relating to real estate located in the country. It records every plot of land in the Grand Duchy, identifies property ownership, and holds own - ership information for real estate. Research can be made by plot or by owner name, although, when researching by owner name, not all real estate is pro - vided – mainly mortgaged properties. Corporate Assets The Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register ( Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés , or RCS) is the key source for identifying a debtor’s corporate assets in Luxembourg companies. It contains information on registered companies, including their management, constitutional documents, annual accounts and cer - tain insolvency-related information. Significantly, the RCS provides details on share ownership for some types of companies, such as private limited liability companies ( sociétés à responsabilité limitée ) and, to a lesser extent, limited partnerships with shares ( socié- tés en commandite ). Insolvency Information Information concerning insolvency proceedings may be available through court publications, the RCS and insolvency-related registers. Intellectual Property Registers Regarding intellectual property and the identity of a product or service, Luxembourg does not have a standalone national trademark protection scheme.
As such, all trademark filings will be registered in the three Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and can be verified on the BOIP (Benelux Office for Intellectual Property) website. Patents are handled by the Intellectual Property Office ( Office de la Propriété Intellectuelle – OPI) within the Ministry of the Economy, and are maintained via the Benelux Patent Platform (BPP). Aside from national fil - ing, Luxembourg is part of the European Patent Office (EPO) system and participates in the European Unitary Patent. Bank Accounts Unless acting on a court order, banks will not disclose to a creditor whether they hold an account (or safe deposit box) belonging to a debtor, or any amounts or assets held for the debtor’s account. Therefore, when attaching bank accounts in Lux - embourg, the creditor will know whether the attach - ment was successful at the end of adversarial court proceedings having validated the attachment. Banks would breach their professional secrecy obligation if they were to disclose confidential information regard - ing their clients to third parties, such their clients’ creditors. An easier way for creditors to “lift” bank secrecy and identify the bank or banks in which a debtor may hold assets is to obtain an ordonnance européenne de sai- sie conservatoire des comptes bancaires , orEuropean Account Preservation Order (EAPO) for debt recovery, pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 655/2014 of the Euro - pean Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters. When applying for an account preservation order, the creditor may request the disclosure of a list of the accounts held by the debtor in the target jurisdiction. In Luxembourg, the CSSF would then compile infor - mation relating to the debtor including the banks in which accounts are held in the debtor’s name and the balances of those accounts.
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