Valérie Simonart examines the issues relating to the legal standing of associations approved as professional unions in "Nullity of an association that pursues in fact a goal that is not disinterested"

Corporate & Finance Partner Valérie Simonart has contributed to the recently published in Revue de Droit Commercial Belge/Tijdschrift voor Belgisch Handelsrecht.

Dealing with an action brought by an association approved as a professional union, the court decides that the defendant association, which rendered support services to its members, is in breach of its not-for-profit purpose, and declares the association null and void.

This judgment (against which an appeal has been lodged) is of particular interest: it rules on the admissibility of an action brought by an association approved as professional union and on the notion of not-for-profit purpose, and is one of the few, and the first under the Belgian Code on companies and associations, to declare an ASBL null and void.

Valérie Simonart examines the issues relating to the legal standing of associations approved as professional unions and explores in depth the meaning of the not-for-profit purpose of ASBLs and the scope of the services that they can render to their members within the limits of the law. She also examines the sanctions applicable to ASBLs whose purpose does not comply with the law.

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