Innherji, an Icelandic business news media, published an article today by Eva Margrét Ævarsdóttir, who leads Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) services at LEX, on the rapid increase in sustainable investing and the risks that may follow, one being the risk of greenwashing. Supervisors are prioritizing the fight against greenwashing and it can be expected that it will remain in focus over the next years.

On the 25th of May „UTmessan“ will take place in Grand Hotel, Reykjavik. UTmessan, which is both a conference and an exhibition, is one of the largest IT events in Iceland. The tagline for this year’s conference is “Where Everything Connects”.

During the event, Lára Herborg Ólafsdóttir, attorney and partner at LEX, will deliver a lecture, titled “How to Tame a Dragon? Proposed Regulation on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Within the European Union (AIPR)”.

Most people are familiar with the robot HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, which memorably refused to carry out a human order, stating, “I’m sorry Dave – I’m afraid I can’t do that”. Since the film’s release in 1968, much progress has been made. Furthermore, people have debated the opportunities that the increased use of artificial intelligence brings about, as well as the risks, e.g., the risk of bias and discrimination due to the data used.

This spring, the European Commission published a draft of a new regulation on the use of artificial intelligence within the European Union. The regulation’s purpose is, inter alia, to influence the methods used when companies develop, market and use digital technology in various forms. The proposed rules, and the impact they will have on companies developing artificial intelligence solutions, will be discussed during the lecture.

Moreover, LEX will have a pop-up office at the exhibition where our top IP and technology experts will welcome visitors.

Morgunblaðið published today an article by Lára Herborg Ólafsdóttir, attorney and partner at LEX Law Offices, where she discusses the legal framework around cookies on websites, especially with regard to data protection. Recently, the Austrian and French data protection authorities ruled that the use of Google analytics violates the Privacy Policy.

Yesterday, Iceland Innovation week was launched in Gróska. Innovation Week is a festival celebrating and showcasing innovation. Yesterday there was an opportunity to listen to stories from various innovation companies and the Minister of Higher education, Science and Innovation, introduced her new ministry. LEX greatly supports innovation and had a pop-up office in Gróska.

Innherji, an Icelandic business news site, recently published an article by Kristinn Ingi Jónsson, lawyer and associate at LEX Law Offices, where he discusses the difficult task faced by listed companies to assess when information is deemed to be “of a precise nature” so that it constitutes inside information. The article highlights inter alia a recent ruling rendered by the Norwegian Supreme Court on the matter and compares it with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Legal 500 the premium legal ranking agency has published their latest ranking for the Icelandic legal market. LEX law offices, one of Iceland’s full-service law firms, has yet again been ranked as a tier 1 firm in all the ranked categories by Legal 500. The categories ranked by Legal 500 are:

1. Banking, finance and capital markets
2. Commercial, corporate and M&A
3. Dispute Resolution
4. EEA and competition
5. Employment
6. Maritime and transport
7. Real estate and construction
8. Restructuring and insolvency
9. TMT and IP

The established partners at LEX are, as in previous years, mentioned as “leading individuals” or in the category of “Hall of Fame” within their respected fields. In addition, confirming the depth in LEX’s service offering, many new faces from LEX have emerged in the rankings such as “leading individuals”, “next generation partners” and “rising stars” in many of the ranked categories.

LEX is one of Iceland´s leading law firms, comprised of around 40 lawyers, providing clients with comprehensive services over a wide range of financial, corporate and commercial issues, as well as most other aspects of Icelandic law.
For 33 years, The Legal 500 has been analysing the capabilities of law firms across the world, with a comprehensive research programme revised and updated every year to bring the most up-to-date vision of the global legal market.

Eva Margrét Ævarsdóttir, attorney, who leads the sustainability and ESG consulting practice at LEX was interviewed in the Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið today. She talks about how many of the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine can be classified as sustainability risks, that are likely to affect the sustainability work of companies and investors. She pointed out how important it can be to identify and analyze sustainability risks, including in supply chains. Eva says that there is increasing demand for sustainability advice from clients.

María Kristjánsdóttir has entered into an agreement with LEX to become a partner of G.H. Intellectual Property. LEX acquired G.H. Intellectual Property in 2018 and since then María has played a key role in the company’s operations which has been very successful. Since the beginning of 2021, María has been the company’s Managing Director.

GH Intellectual Property is an affiliate of LEX Law Offices, providing tailored services in all fields of IP. Its aim is to secure their clients’ legal rights with respect to their intangible assets, increase their value and keep its clients one step ahead of the competition.

María has worked at LEX since 2008 and has since been part of LEX’s intellectual property team, where she has mainly focused on trademark law, in addition to other areas of law such as competition law, data protection and more.
She graduated from Reykjavík University in 2007 and completed her LL.M degree from Fordham University in New York in 2008.

At the Annual General Meeting of LEX, which was held on 18 March 2022 a new board of LEX was elected. Guðmundur Ingvi Sigurðsson, who has been a member of the board of LEX since 2014, and chairman since 2019 decided not to run for a continued board member seat. In his place Óskar Sigurðsson was elected. The new board of LEX therefore consists of:

• Kristín Edwald
• Ólafur Haraldsson
• Lára Herborg Ólafsdóttir
• Garðar Víðir Gunnarsson
• Óskar Sigurðsson

At the first board meeting of the new board, Kristín Edwald was elected new chairman of LEX. We wish the new board every success in their endeavours.

At a shareholders’ meeting earlier this year, Birgir Már Björnsson, Fanney Frímannsdóttir and Lára Herborg Ólafsdóttir were promoted to A shareholders. We congratulate them.

On the 18th of March, the District Court of Reykjavik dismissed the cases of the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company (ÁTVR) against Sante ehf., Santewines SAS and Arnar Sigurðsson
ÁTVR demanded that the defendants would cease to participate in the retail sale of alcohol online and that they would be held liable for damages that ÁTVR had suffered as a result of their participation in the retail sale of alcohol online. The judge dismissed this case and ruled that ÁTVR had no legal interest in preventing the companies’ online sales of alcohol and it was the task of the Minister of Finance to decide how the alcohol policy in Iceland would be implemented, not ÁTVR.
Birgir Már Björnsson, attorney and partner at LEX, represented Sante and Santewines with assistance from Fjölnir Ólafsson, attorney and associate. ÁTVR was also ordered to pay legal costs, ISK 1.65 million LEX’s clients