Unfair trading is often referred to as the cause of crisis in various sectors, holding down small and medium enterprises. In practice, unfair trading is sometimes improperly confused with predatory pricing or distortion of competition. Unfair trading may also trigger serious tax implications.

In 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto published a white-paper outlining electronic cash peer-to-peer transactions known as Bitcoin, the first virtual currency based on a technology known as blockchain. Virtual currencies present a new digital asset class that is still in a grey area in terms of defining the actual asset. This creates difficulties and uncertainty in the area of taxation of profits arising from the owning, holding, or disposing of the given assets. 

Increase in R&D Premium

Almost four years ago, under pressure from its European partners and the IMF exercised by means of economic adjustment programs and loan agreements broadly known as “memoranda,” the Greek State adopted a new tax procedural code.

On July 29, 2017, a new regulation regarding the reception of construction projects (the “New Regulation”) was enacted by means of Government Decision no. 343/2017. The New Regulation, which replaced the former procedure (which was regulated by Government Decision no. 273/1994) in its entirety, provides a number of notable changes impacting the real estate and construction industry in Romania.

On July 29, 2017, a new regulation regarding the reception of construction projects (the “New Regulation”) was enacted by means of Government Decision no. 343/2017. The New Regulation, which replaced the former procedure (which was regulated by Government Decision no. 273/1994) in its entirety, provides a number of notable changes impacting the real estate and construction industry in Romania.

A number of modifications to Romanian fiscal legislation implemented on January 1, 2016, have had significant effects on both taxpayers and competent authorities. The most important of these modifications target the transfer pricing policies and the VAT payment mechanism and have had a direct effect on fiscal litigations.

Romanian Government Ordinance no. 23/2017 regarding split VAT payment entered into force on October 1, with its provisions being optional until the end of 2017. On January 1, 2018, the Ordinance becomes mandatory. 

On 5 December 2017, Typical Requirements for Vertical Concerted Actions of Business Entities (hereinafter the "Typical Requirements"), approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the "AMC"), became effective.

A new decree was issued by the Ministry for National Economy in October 2017, introducing a three-level, standardized approach relating to the transfer pricing documentation (including the master file, the local file, and the country specific report) from 2018.

According to the current wording of the Code of the Civil Procedure, a private document, until proven otherwise, must have full probative force, verifying that the issuer has in fact made the statement that the document contains, or undertakes to consider himself bound by such statement, provided that the rules regarding the form of using witnesses is observed.

Traffic insurance activities of almost the entire Turkish insurance industry have been subject to two examinations of the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) in 2017.

The Ministry of Energy introduced guidelines for a new support mechanism for cogeneration (technological process of simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heat in CHP plants). All existent cogeneration installations will be allowed to benefit from the support system, based on a premium paid extra in the electricity price. For new units, an auction mechanism will be introduced. A “feed-in-premium” (FiP) mechanism will be provided for those installations with total installed capacity lower than 1MW.

Based on the recently modified Hungarian VAT Act, in case of invoices issued in connection with transactions between resident taxpayers, the issuer of the invoice is obliged to report data from the invoice to the tax authority if the output tax is equal or above HUF 100,000. The goal of this obligation is the reduction of tax evasion and the whitening of the economy. 

According to a recent proposal submitted to the Hungarian Parliament, the Hungarian Government intends to launch the electronic procurement system in April 2018.

The Working Party on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data (“Working Party”) which is established as per the Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 24, 1995 (“EU Directive”) updated their opinion on consent under General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) which will be effective on May 28, 2018.

Starting May 25, 2018, all companies, irrespective of their field of activity, have to comply with the stricter rules on personal data processing introduced by General Data Protection Regulation No. 679/2016 (the GDPR) or face significantly larger fines. The gap between the current maximum fines, which cannot exceed EUR 22,000, and the fines under the GDPR, which can go as high as EUR 20,000,000 or 4% of the annual worldwide turnover, have drawn a significant amount of attention to the topic. 

On December 5th, 2017, with the Omnibus Bill No. 7061 published on the Official Gazette, the Capital Markets Law No. 6362 (“Law”) is amended in a way to pave the way for the financing tool “crowdfunding” in Turkey.