FDI screening was for a long time a blank spot on the regulatory landscape for most countries in Central Eastern Europe (CEE). Unlike Western European Member States, relatively few countries in Central Eastern Europe had instruments to vet foreign investments and those that did exist often were of little practical consequence.

Over the last years the Ukrainian legal community has been actively discussing the developments in the antitrust reform and making practical efforts to implement it. MPs, the Antimonopoly Committee (the AMC) and other state bodies, international organizations, domestic and foreign antitrust experts have been involved in this process. This article provides an overview of certain changes that will further contribute to the development of the Ukrainian antitrust and competition legislation, and which have already been reflected in draft laws. Most of them were published in the form of recommendations provided to Ukraine by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) several years ago. 

This article outlines the possibilities of a legal defence against “screenscraping” – a way of automated data extraction from web sites of third parties without their consent (or even against an express prohibition).

On 26 July 2022, Law No. 265/2022 regarding the trade registry and amending and supplementing other legal instruments applicable to the registration with the trade registry (“Law No. 265/2022”), including the Companies Law No. 31/1990 (“Companies Law”), was published in the Official Gazette No. 750/2022.

In a decision published on 26 July 2022, Austrian data protection authority established that Volkswagen was in violation of Articles 13, 28, 35 and 30 of the GDPR.

Since the end of the 2010s foreign direct investment (“FDI”) considerations have been on the forefront of transaction planning and management. Although a unified EU-level screening mechanism is not in place, recently the European Commission (“EC”) closed a landmark case, while another one is currently ongoing before the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) where the interplay of EU law and more specifically, EU merger law and national FDI rules were/are assessed. Dicta in these cases may have considerable implications in national FDI practice. This summary therefore provides a quick glance-through of the key notables taken from these cases.

Due to the rapidly growing real estate sector, the lawmaker specifically regulates contractual relationships between the parties in order to prevent any loss of right of any one of the parties. Along with the typical real estate sales agreements, preliminary sales agreements are also needed by the sellers and buyers due to many reasons (such as planning a budget for construction, speeding up the period of the construction etc.).

On 15 March 2022, the Parliament of Ukraine passed Law of Ukraine “On Organisation of Labour Relations under the Martial Law” No. 2136-IX, dated 1 July 2022 (“Law 2136”). Law 2136 was intended to define the aspects of labour relations during martial law.

A new asset peace regulation entered into force with the article 50 of Law No. 7417 on Certain Amendments to Civil Servants Law and Certain Laws and Statutory Decree No. 375 [the “Law No. 7417”] which was published in the Official Gazette numbered 31887 on 5 July 2022.

Ukrainian Bar Association, July 27, 2022: Since February 2022, our primary objective has been to resist Russian aggression against Ukraine on the legal front. We urge world leaders to impose radical sanctions against Russia and establish comprehensive accountability and damages mechanisms. In addition, we support Ukrainian citizens and lawyers affected by the war. However, the Ukrainian Bar Association needs support from the international legal community to survive this fateful time and continue our activities.

AgiLawyer Society, July 25, 2022: We are seeking additional volunteer lawyers to join our international platform UA.SUPPORT - particularly lawyers based in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Hungary, and also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway and Sweden. If you are interested, please fill out the following form on our website UA.SUPPORT or contact us by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss opportunities for cooperation.

The numerous political, economic and social uncertainties of the last period, coupled with a significant increase in the prices of consumer goods, have led the Romanian Government to amend the existing legal framework and to regulate the commercial behaviour of companies in a stricter manner, aiming to combat potential speculative actions, but also unfair competition practices.

Government Decree No. 230/2022 passed on 28 June 2022 introduced a new regime which enables the Hungarian Government to place certain entities under the supervision of the Hungarian State. Such entities shall have a significant or dominant position in the energy industry, in particular in the following sectors having strategic and national security importance: (i) electricity, (ii) natural gas, (iii) crude oil, (iv) district heating and (v) mining. The legislation expressly mentions two entities, i.e. FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Private Company Limited by Shares and the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association.

Although the number of landscape resolutions nationwide remains small, an increasing number of cities are deciding to draft and enact such resolutions.

Here is some good news for the renewable energy industry:

EU and national associations representing companies that bring ultrafast digital connectivity in Europe – AOMR (RO), APMS (CZ), AssoTelecomunicazioni (IT), ATI (BG), DigitalES (SP), ETNO (EU), Federation Francaise des Telecoms (FR), and the GSMA Europe (EU), issued a joint statement calling for greater participation of Big Tech and OTTs in infrastructure investments and extending some telecoms regulatory requirements to OTT services.

On 11 July 2022, the Romanian DPA announced it sanctioned a courier services company with a EUR 3,000 fine for breaching its obligations regarding the level of security that must be ensured with respect to personal data.

The Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (“AERS”) adopted three decisions on amendments of the following methodologies, on its session held on 7 July 2022: