Situations
Where is your company right now?
Seven situations that companies working in more than one country keep running into. Each page says what is at stake, where it goes wrong, what Lexaero delivers and how to start.
Seven situations
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We are entering a new country
The date you can start trading, and who answers for the new company. -
Someone is asking about our data
A customer contract, an investment or a regulator's enquiry that is waiting for your answer. -
A regulator is coming, or a new rule now applies to us
The approval the business runs on, and what the audit finds. -
We are launching a name or a product
The brand, and everything spent on launching it. -
We need funding for the next stage
Months of your team's time, and the timing of the round. -
We are signing or buying across a border
Whether the contract is worth what it says, and the closing date. -
Our companies abroad run with nobody watching the filings
The directors' personal position and the company's standing with its bank.
Which border
General orientation as at October 2026. It is not legal advice.
- Within the EU
- Inside the EU much is harmonised, but company law, registers and enforcement remain national.
- Into the EU from outside
- From outside the EU, the first question is whether the company needs a presence in a member state at all, or whether a representative and the right contracts will do.
- Between the EU and Switzerland
- Switzerland is outside the EU and the EEA. EU trade marks, most EU licences and product approvals stop at its border, and Swiss equivalents take their place. Court judgments are the exception: between Switzerland and EU member states they are recognised both ways under the Lugano Convention.
- Between the EU and the United Kingdom
- Since Brexit the United Kingdom runs its own version of most EU regimes, so a company active in both does much of this twice: once for the EU and once for the UK.
- Into the Middle East
- Entry into the Middle East is shaped by licensing: which activity, in which state, on the mainland or in a free zone. Lexaero works with local counsel there and keeps the home side aligned.
- Into North America
- North America means federal law and state or provincial law at once. Lexaero works with local counsel there and keeps the home side aligned.
Something else
Something else has crossed a border?
Describe it in a few lines. If it is not work for Lexaero, you will be told so, and where possible who to ask.