On 7 June 2018, the Chamber of Representatives adopted the Law to promote alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (the "Law") (Wet houdende diverse bepalingen inzake burgerlijk recht en houdende wijziging van het Gerechtelijk Wetboek met het oog op de bevordering van alternatieve vormen van geschillenoplossing/Loi portant dispositions diverses en matière de droit civil et portant modification du Code judiciaire en vue de promouvoir des formes alternatives de resolution des litiges) (See, this Newsletter, Volume 2018, No. 6, p. 20, available at www.vbb.com). In addition to promoting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, the Law also implements and completes European Regulation 655/2014 of 15 May 2014 (the "Regulation") establishing a European Account Preservation Order (the "EAPO") procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters.
The Regulation allows creditors to preserve the amount owed in a debtor's bank accounts located in any participating EU Member State through a single application for an EAPO before a national court. However, in order to initiate such an EAPO procedure, the creditor should in principle be able to identify a debtor's bank account. If this is not possible (but if the creditor provides sufficient elements suggesting that the debtor owns a bank account in Belgium), the creditor may request the national court to obtain the necessary information (See, this Newsletter, Volume 2017, No. 1, p. 6, available at www.vbb.com).
The Law was adopted in order to implement this EAPO procedure. It provides for the following:
- Only the beslagrechter/juge des saisies has jurisdiction to issue an EAPO and impose other remedies provided for in the Regulation (such as the possibility to request additional financial information about the debtor's bank account). The Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to rule on appeals against those decisions.
- The Bailiffs' National Chamber is designated as the Belgian "information authority". The information authority can be requested by the beslagrechter/juge des saisies to supply the requisite information allowing the identification of a debtor's bank account (in the case where a creditor is not able to identify the bank account owned by his debtor). In order to obtain that information, the Bailiffs' National Chamber can request information from the "Central Point of Contact for Bank Accounts and Financial Contracts" established by the Belgian National Bank.
The Law also provides that this procedure will apply to purely domestic Belgian cases (i.e., cases without any cross-border character).
The Law was published in the Belgian Official Journal on 2 July 2018 and entered into force on the same day. However, the rules regarding the possibility to avail oneself of the information sharing procedure in purely domestic cases will only enter into force on 1 January 2019.
By Quentin Declève
