Understanding Regulatory Regimes

Workshop Topic

Navigating the space regulatory landscape can be as challenging as reaching orbit itself. Join attorneys from Greenberg Traurig for an interactive session that demystifies common legal hurdles facing space businesses in the new space age. Using a hypothetical European start-up contemplating entry into the U.S. market, we’ll explore common questions and considerations like: What are the potential drawbacks to expanding business overseas? Can European companies form U.S. subsidiaries if partially government-owned, and which entities qualify for U.S. government contracts? How do European satellite operators authorize satellite communications in the U.S.? Ideal for executives, advisors, and innovators, this session invites you to participate, share insights, and bring questions of your own. Join us to gain a deeper understanding of navigating in both European and U.S. small satellite markets.

Workshop Outline

The “Understanding Regulatory Regimes” workshop will be an interactive, 75-minute presentation led by attorneys from Greenberg Traurig, with 15 minutes reserved at the end for an audience question and answer session. The workshop will open with the presentation of a short narrative describing a hypothetical European small satellite operator company that is considering entering the U.S. market. The narrative of this smallsat entity and the scenarios it encounters will run throughout the workshop and will be used as a tool to keep the audience engaged and provide instruction through analogy. During the workshop, the hypothetical European smallsat entity will encounter the following scenarios, each presented by a Greenberg Traurig attorney, and each meant to highlight different regulatory considerations for the smallsat industry: For the first scenario, an instructor will walk through considerations for a European smallsat operator that has just begun selling hardware into the U.S. market, but that is otherwise still conducting just European activities. This scenario is meant to highlight issues of export control for transfers into and out of the U.S. Additionally, the instructor will invite members of the audience to share lessons learned or pain points for European companies contemplating global sales. In the second scenario, the European smallsat operator now wishes to start providing their satellite service to consumers in the U.S. However, the smallsat operator has a telecommunications authorization from their European country and needs to navigate the process of requesting “market access” in the U.S. to start their service for U.S. customers. This scenario will explore how to approach requesting authorization for providing foreign satellite services into the U.S. to meet applicable Federal Communications Commission requirements, including service rules, considerations of foreign ownership, orbital debris mitigation, and fees for the desired authorization. In the third scenario, the audience learns that the hypothetical European smallsat operator has had success to-date with selling hardware into the U.S., and is considering incorporating a U.S. entity to further access overseas markets. However, the entity is partially owned by a European government, and unsure of the potential upsides and downsides of developing a subsidiary entity. The instructor for this scenario will cover a range of issues that may come up when contemplating incorporation of a U.S. entity, from U.S. restrictions on foreign investment in the U.S. to duplicative or contradictory U.S. and EU regulations. Just as with the first and second scenario, the instructor will invite the audience to share similar experiences encountered when growing smallsat entities. The fourth scenario will encounter the hypothetical European smallsat operator several months in the future, when it has decided to “bite the bullet” and pursue creation of a U.S. subsidiary entity. The instructor for this session will walk through considerations for an initial corporate structure that would potentially enable the U.S. subsidiary to compete for U.S. Government contracts, including corporate structuring and the impact on eligibility for classified work. This scenario will also close with an opportunity for the audience to share their experiences. The workshop will close will a general audience question and answer session, where members are invited to follow-up on specific parts of the workshop, or to ask about other scenarios that may not have been yet addressed. Overall, the goal of the workshop is to enable executives and innovators to spot potential legal issues throughout the growth cycle of a company, especially those issues that need to be addressed in advance due to long lead times for regulatory processes or given the importance of the issue, and the resolution of which will help ensure a successful and viable smallsat entity.

Date: May 28, 2025 Time: 3:00 pm - 3:55 pm

Timothy Bransford
Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Erik de Bie
Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Cyril Brennan
Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP