Vera Jungkind

Vera advises German and international companies on all aspects of public and regulatory law, especially in areas relating to environmental law and product compliance, foreign trade law/trade sanctions, data protection, social security law, public duties and levies, AML compliance, administrative procedural law and litigation, compliance and internal investigations.

Her most recent environmental and product compliance matters include advising an international chemicals company on the remediation of several, large-scale instances of PFAS pollution in soil and groundwater, encompassing aspects of German waste management and landfill law as well as administrative proceedings (since 2017), and on the legal framework applicable to the use and disposal of certain chemical substances (since 2020); advising industrial companies on the legal requirements for demolishing, remediating and decommissioning production facilities (since 2023); advising a hazardous goods warehouse on requirements under hazardous incident law, obtaining immission control approval (since 2021) and the handling of PFAS-containing extinguishing water (since 2024); advising an industrial company on an approaching residential development and odor emissions (since 2024); advising an industrial company on the CE marking obligation for machinery (since 2024) and advising an industrial company on its legal obligations under the German Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (since 2024). In many cases, Vera's advisory services also comprise providing assistance with administrative proceedings, including administrative offense proceedings, as well as litigation.

In matters relating to foreign trade law, Vera is currently (since February 2022) advising several entities from different sectors on the Russia sanctions, in particular on the goods- and service-related sanctions and financial sanctions, as well as on reviewing compliance processes and establishing compliance organizations together with reviewing business policies, on examining past deliveries and on administrative and investigation proceedings. At present (2024), her advising practice is focused on so-called "no-Russia" clauses, the best-efforts obligation with regard to subsidiaries based outside the EU and the avoidance of compliance violations in the case of indirect supplies and sanctions circumventions. In addition, Vera has advised a defense-sector company on the German War Weapons Control Act, on the EU Dual-Use Regulation and on customs law (involving administrative proceedings) (since 2023), an asset manager (since 2021) and an energy services provider (2021) on sanctions screenings, a middle-market machine manufacturer on exports to Iran as well as on the EU Blocking Regulation and its application on US secondary sanctions imposed on Iran (2020), a financial services provider on the account closure of an Iranian customer as well as on the EU Blocking Regulation (2019) and several other entities on notification requirements under foreign trade law and the voluntary disclosure for violating such requirements. Vera also has many years of experience in investment review procedures in various industries, including critical infrastructure and high-tech.

Examples of further public-law matters she has handled include advising an energy services provider on the compatibility of the amendments to the German Heating Cost Ordinance and German Metering Point Operation Act with European and constitutional law (2023) and advising a bank on know-your-customer requirements under the German Anti-Money Laundering Act (2022–2024).

As regards data protection law, Vera has considerable expertise in advising international clients on data protection in M&A transactions, merger control procedures and internal investigations, as well as on data protection breaches and regulatory data protection proceedings. Recently, for instance, she has advised on various purchases of data in insolvency situations (2024), a debt collection service provider and other financial industry players on the use of tracking technologies (2024), telephone and video recordings and the legal bases for the data processing (2023), involving administrative proceedings, as well as a media group and an insurance group on information access requests from data subjects (2023). In corporate transactions, Vera has provided assistance to a bank on the sale and restructuring of a credit card debt portfolio, including the data migration and outsourcing of the processing of services (2022–2024).

Her compliance and internal investigation matters have included, in particular, an internal investigation at a commercial vehicles manufacturer into potential deliveries to Russia in circumvention of sanctions (2024), one at a company in the real estate sector regarding personnel administration and payroll issues (2023/2024), one on behalf of a globally operating industrial company relating to the suspected supply of products to the Russian arms industry before the 2022 Russia sanctions entered into force (since 2022) and advising an insurance group on internal investigations into the social security status of outside personnel ('false self-employment'), encompassing proceedings conducted by state authorities (2019–2024). In many of the internal investigations performed by Hengeler Mueller, Vera advises on intersecting aspects of data protection law, such as the permissibility of data screenings (including the use of artificial intelligence), information and disclosure duties, the handling of private data and the transferring of data to authorities and parties to disputes outside the EU.