A Possible European Delaware : Can the European Private Company Prevent It?

Abstract: The European market is constantly changing and business across national borders is be-coming a daily feature. Companies no longer settle for trading within their own national borders and perhaps cannot even afford to restrict themselves to such a small area if they wish to expand. The new view of EC Company Law given by the European Court of Justice makes it possible for companies to move to another Member State and still be recognised as a legitimate company. This view is based on the incorporation theory, i.e. the theory that a company shall be governed by the law of the state in which it is incorporated. However, with this change come new threats to the market. Scholars fear that the European market will take the same approach as that of the US, where the state of Delaware has been able to attract more than half of the larger enterprises on the market in the regulatory competition between the states. In addition to that, the European market has been intro-duced to new supranational companies, i.e. companies that are above national law and answer to EC law, and these companies could have a large impact on the changes of the market. The SE Company and the proposed European Private Company may come to prevent a European Delaware. In this paper it is argued that a regulatory competition is going to occur within the Union in the near future – if it has not already – based on changes made by some Member States in order to attract more companies to incorporate under their jurisdiction. It will not fully resemble the situation in the US since the two market fields differ from one another. It is also argued that a European Delaware may come to exist, but that the mere existence of a regulatory competition does not have to result in such a state. A Delaware effect may be prevented by the European Private Company, if this form comes to exist. It is the thesis of this paper that the market in addition to the EPC, in order to actually be able to prevent the somewhat unwished competition, must meet three vital requirements. First of all, the EPC must differ from the statute of the SE Company, meaning it must be separated from national law since it otherwise would be an element of competition in itself. Second, the market – and then mostly through new Company Law Directives – must keep the freedom restricted. If the Directives allowed companies unrestricted freedom of establishment that would mean a possibility to move cross-border without the need for a EPC, which in turn would not be able to prevent a European Delaware. Third, there cannot be a working reincorporation within the Union, meaning Member States cannot be allowed to benefit from tax revenues that derive from such a move, since that would be yet another element to the regulatory competition.