The Slovak Republic has now adopted legislation that focuses on the technological development for autonomous driving and intelligent mobility. On 8 November 2022, the President of the Slovak Republic signed the Act amending certain laws in relation to the development of automated vehicles.

European Union (EU) and Western Balkans telecommunication operators signed a Roaming Declaration at the EU-Western Balkans Summit held on Tuesday in Tirana. According to the Declaration, Western Balkans – EU roaming charges will be reduced voluntarily from 1 October 2023, with subsequent reductions gradually leading to their complete elimination. The commitment was also reinforced as part of the Tirana Declaration, which was agreed upon at the Summit.

The Hungarian Parliament recently adopted a rather significant update to Act LVII of 1996 on the prohibition of unfair market practices and the restriction of competition (“Hungarian Competition Act”). The updates are, at a number of points, based on recommendations made by the Hungarian Competition Association (with DLA Piper’s antitrust group providing significant input). The amendments will generally enter into force on 1 January 2023 (with some exceptions for 1 February 2023). Below, we have collected some of the key changes for Hungarian and international businesses.

"The total insurtech industry value in 2022 was $5.4 billion. Revenue forecast for 2030 is $152 billion." Grand View Research, Insurtech Market Size, Industry Report, 2022-2030

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. In our first Legal Insight ("Austria: The (new) Copyright Contract Law") we provided some background information and an overview. In our second and third Legal Insights, we introduced the new remuneration provisions ("Austria: The (new) copyright remuneration rules for authors and performers") and the transparency obligation ("Austria: The (new) copyright transparency obligation"), which are based on the DSM Directive.

On 28 November 2022, the Council of the European Union gave final approval on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

December 2022 – On 1 December 2022, the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic (“the Ministry”) published a call for the submission of applications for the provision of a subsidy to cover additional costs due to the increase in gas and electricity prices (“the Call”). The aim of the Call is to compensate qualifying companies and natural persons (entrepreneurs) for excessive energy prices in August and September 2022. In this article, we present an overview of the related key information.

What's new in Polish corporate law?

In the Official Gazette of the RS no. 131/2022 of November 29, 2022, the Decision on Fees for Registration and Other Services Provided by the Business Registers Agency was published, which regulates the type, amount and method of payment of fees for the registration procedure and other services provided by the Business Registers Agency in keeping registers and records (“the Decision”).

Law No. 7420 has made significant amendments related to tax legislation. These amendments cover: the introduction of a new tax treatment on capital reduction, a time extension for conversion to a currency-protected deposit account, an extension of the deadline for the tax benefits granted to individual participation investors (angel investors), income tax exemption for the portion of the meal costs paid in cash to employees that do not exceed TRY 51, and amendments to the tourism share rates.

An amendment to the Czech Significant Market Power Act (the "SMP Act"), which should harmonise Czech law with the EU directive on unfair business practices (the "Directive"), was recently signed by the President and will become effective as of 1 January 2023.

Pursuant to Article 350 of the Turkish Code of Obligations; the lessor, his/her spouse, his/her descendants or ascendants or persons who are legally dependent on the lessor; should have a need to use the leased property for residency or workplace purposes for lessor to request the eviction of the property due to personal needs.

The Decree on the Determination of the Companies Subject to Independent Audit ["Decree"] No. 6434 published in the Official Gazette dated November 30, 2022 and numbered 32029, abolished the Decree on the Determination of the Companies Subject to Independent Audit No. 2018/11597 dated March 26, 2018, published in the Official Gazette dated May 26, 2018 and numbered 30432, and amended the thresholds of the criteria for determining the companies subject to independent audit while also amending the scope. These amendments aim to adapt the scope of independent audit to today's needs and to harmonize with the EU regulations.

On 28 November 2022, the Council of the European Union gave its final approval to the Regulation on Foreign Subsidies distorting the Internal Market (FSR) following the adoption of the regulation by the European Parliament on 10 November 2022.

The fact that the last 20 years have been marked by the expansion of digital markets has undoubtedly contributed to the "enthronement" of leading companies in dominant positions all over the planet, created issues of effective competition enforcement regulations and the obvious need for more comprehensive and better regulation of the markets themselves.

Hungarian merger control is generally aligned with the relevant EU rules with only relatively minor exceptions or special rules. For example, a notable special rule – which follows similar trends in major European jurisdictions – is the existence of the soft threshold regime, which enables the Hungarian Competition Authority (the Gazdasági Versenyhivatal, “GVH”) to intervene in case the traditional/“hard” thresholds are not met, but where competition is threatened on a specific market (e.g. in case of “killer acquisitions”).

The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye published the Guidelines on Correlating Business Models in the Field of Payments with Payment Service Types (“Guidelines”).
The Guidelines provide detailed explanations as to how payment services regulated under the Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions (the “Law”) and the Regulation on Payment Services and Electronic Money Issuance and Payment Service Providers (the “Regulation”) can be correlated with the business models in the field of payments, in order to ensure compliance with the regulations and uniformity in operating licenses to be granted by the CBRT for authorizations. You can access the Guidelines here.

According to a non-binding opinion delivered on September 20, 2022, by Athanasios Rantos, influential adviser to the European Court of Justice, antitrust authorities may also assess infringement of personal data protection rules during their investigations.