Bucharest is currently going down a rocky road insofar as urban regulations are concerned, which have gone through a real odyssey, from being judicially and administratively suspended, to some of them ending up by being finally cancelled by the administrative litigation courts.

Pursuant to the Regulation on Unlicensed Electricity Production in Electricity Markets [“Regulation”] [available in Turkish only], it is possible to generate electricity without being obliged to obtain a license / pre-license from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority [“EMRA”] or incorporate a company. Accordingly, the consumers can meet their electricity needs from their own generation facilities that are in the vicinity of the consumption points and sell the surplus electricity limited to the previous year's consumption.

The amendment to the Austrian Copyright Act introduces a whole range of new provisions on copyright contract law, strengthening the position of authors and performers.

As a new business trend, ESG is of growing interest to an increasing number of markets. More and more businesses are publishing ESG strategies and with good reason. According to PwC’s 2021 U.S. survey, 83% of consumers indicated a preference for companies to implement ESG best practices, and 86% of employees prefer to work for companies that care about ESG values.

According to the Hungarian Civil Code, the debtor is liable to pay interest on any owed money that has fallen due from the first day of the delay in payment, even if the use of the money was free of charge until the delay.

Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Regulation of Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Alcohol Market and Certain Laws No. 7423 (the “Omnibus Bill”), which was submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on October 18, 2022 was legalized and published in the Official Gazette dated December 10, 2022 and numbered 32039. Some of the amendments in the Omnibus Bill entered into force on the date of its publication; while other amendments will enter into force on January 1, 2024.

On 2 December 2022, a new act entered into force on the modification of certain acts related to the operation of territorial administration, the land registry and regional development. Under the new act, the new Land Registry Act will enter into force one year later, on 1 February 2024, instead of 1 February 2023 as planned originally. The new modifying act also contains other amendments.

After the Parliament of Montenegro adopted Law on amendments to the Law of Foreigners and introduced legal framework for digital nomads earlier in August 2022, further activities were undertaken in order to establish the practical applicability of the adopted legal framework.

On 6 December 2022, Government Emergency Ordinance no. 163/2022 ("GEO 163/2022" or the “Ordinance”) for supplementing the legal framework on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and for amending and supplementing certain regulatory acts, was published in Official Gazette of Romania No. 1165, entering into force on the same date.

The 2022 Fall Tax Package has been officially accepted by the Hungarian Parliament with the changes for 2023. The tax package does not bring fundamental changes, but includes finetuning with many different taxes, e.g. SMEs, real estate transactions and local business taxation.

Under art. 90, par. 1 of the Bulgarian Contracts and Obligations Act, a party may refuse to perform its obligations if there is non-performance by the counterparty under the same transaction ("Statutory Retention Right").

Spanish authority in charge of personal data protection has recently fined a personal data controller for using the audio recording option of its surveillance system, which data was subsequently used for termination of an employment contract.

On 11 December 2022, Law No.2759-IX of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Preventing and Countering Mobbing (Hostile Environment)" dated 16 November 2022 (Law) came into effect. Among other things, the Law: (i) provides the definition of "mobbing"; (ii) introduces new grounds for dismissal of employees in connection with mobbing; and (iii) guarantees compensation of moral damages for employees who have suffered from mobbing.

Since 1 March 2021, Slovakia had a limited FDI regime applicable only to critical infrastructure. However, right after it was adopted, the government started preparing comprehensive legislation that would apply not only to selected industries but to all foreign investments in general (in line with FDI regimes in other EU Member States). After many drafts and lengthy negotiations, this new regime was finally adopted in late November 2022.

Investigations of the Turkish Competition Authority against certain undertakings operating in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry as producers, suppliers, and retailers to determine whether Article 4 of the Law on the Protection of Competition has been violated are ongoing and currently, verbal self-defense processes are being submitted.

Law No. 265/2022 on the trade register and for amending and supplementing other normative acts with impact on the registration in the trade register (“Law No. 265/2022”) was published in the Official Journal of Romania No. 750, Part I, of 26 July 2022. Law No. 265/2022 entered into force on 26 November 2022.

"In 10 years you won’t go to meetings – you’ll digitally teleport to them." Meta Founder, Mark Zuckerberg

In a recent decision, the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) addressed party status and the requirements for an eligible complaint by recognised environmental organisations (EOs) in permit procedures under water law.