Personal companies, as entities exercising small and medium-sized businesses, are, as is often said, the backbone of the Greek economy and therefore require a functional and effective legislative framework.

Law 4072/2012 (Articles 249 – 293), which attempted to completely reform the law regarding personal companies that until then was regulated by the outdated and incomplete provisions of Articles 18 – 28, 38 – 50, and 64 of the Commercial Law, as well as complementary provisions from Articles 741 – 784 of the Civil Code, brought significant changes to this area. It also sought to provide solutions to numerous issues, such as the legal treatment of informal and unpublished companies, single-member companies, the necessity of liquidation, and the limits of the authority of managers, something it managed to do to a certain extent.

Furthermore, it established new foundations for limited partnerships and secret partnerships, and for the first time regulated joint ventures. At the same time, it clarified the legislative status governing civil companies with legal personality, subjecting them to the proportional application of the provisions that govern general partnerships.

Therefore, as was to be expected, Law 4072/2012 has significantly engaged Greek jurisprudence since its enactment, which attempted to interpret its new provisions. Additionally, the new Law 4403/2016 has recently made changes to the law concerning personal companies regarding the publicity of the financial statements of general partnerships as per paragraph 2 of Article 1 of Law 4308/2014, as well as concerning single-member general partnerships.

Consequently, the aforementioned modern developments, both at the jurisprudential and legislative level, have rendered the issuance of the law on personal companies necessary, which is renewed, supplemented, and updated, as described above.

In this edition, the same capital structure is followed, with an analytical interpretation of the law of general partnerships, simple limited partnerships, secret partnerships, and a brief reference to joint ventures, along with abundant references to articles and jurisprudence. Finally, related legislation governing the aforementioned corporate forms and applicable to them is provided, as well as a user-friendly index by article and an alphabetical index of entries.