Pre-packs, phoenixes, call them what you will but when such dealings involve a certain set of circumstances, in particular original directors buying back a failed business and then carrying on with flawed business practices, it's fairly certain that there will be an understandably outraged/jaundiced [delete as applicable] view of the outcome.

I'm wondering, is there anywhere in the world where they have this sort of legislation right? What can we learn from how the situation is handled elsewhere?

The fact that it's so difficult to think of examples of 'successful' pre-packs whereby firms have been sold to existing management or directors, and then subsequently gone on to re-establish themselves as stable, well-run companies points to a very obvious problem with where we are now in terms of the UK legislation.

Perhaps we could take a leaf out of the US bankruptcy law books, by having court-appointed officers involved. They could oversee the activities of pre-packs. There could be a standard fee structure based on the company size.

Activities that are most distressing to competitors, such as the oft-mentioned pricing work below cost, would be legally forbidden for, say, a three-year period and subject to scrutiny by the aforementioned officer, with heavy penalties for abuse.

Might such a thing help weed out the opportunists causing such carnage by abusing the current system? And where, if anywhere, in the world do they get this stuff right?