The Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Games of Chance, adopted by the end of 2024 and applied as from 6 January 2025, has brought several important changes and new legal solutions that have arisen from the needs of practice and market development. In addition to harmonizing the text of the law with the technological development in this area, the amendments to the law introduced new obligations for organizers and a significant increase in fees for obtaining approval and for organizing games of chance.

Significant amendments to Hungary's foreign direct investment (FDI) control regime entered into force on 24 June 2025, introducing expanded pre-emption rights for the state and revised procedural timelines.

After the European Commission’s letter in December 2024, which identified the risks of regulatory arbitrage stemming from diverging interpretations, risks that we also encounter in practice, the European Banking Authority (“EBA”), in its outlook, called for no immediate action regarding the PSD2’s applicability to services related to electronic money tokens (“EMTs”). On 10 June 2025, the long-awaited Opinion of the EBA (the “EBA No Action Letter”) on the interplay between Directive 2015/2366 (“PSD2”) and Regulation 2023/1114 (“MiCA”) in relation to crypto-asset service providers (“CASPs”) that transact in EMTs was finally published.  

Ukrainian taxpayers operating within multinational enterprise groups (MNEs) with consolidated annual revenues exceeding EUR 750 million may, for the first time in 2025, be required to independently file Country-by-Country (CbC) reports. This applies in particular to companies that are part of MNEs with a U.S.-based ultimate parent entity.

The Czech Office for the Protection of Competition fined the Association of Disinfection, Disinsection and Pest Control Workers of the Czech Republic for publishing, since 2016, so-called median prices for the provision of disinfection, disinsection and pest control services on its website.

On 11 June 2025 the Hungarian Parliament adopted the proposal on the protection of local identity, essentially drafted to safeguard the interests of local communities in Hungarian municipalities, which was also published in the Hungarian Gazette on 16 June 2025.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has introduced several important changes in the field of plant variety rights protection that will facilitate registration for right holders.

In April 2007, Estonia made global headlines — not for a military conflict or natural disaster, but for one of the first coordinated large-scale cyberattacks against a nation-state. Sparked by the relocation of a Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn (known as the Bronze Night), the country’s digital infrastructure was flooded with denial-of-service attacks. Government websites, banks, media outlets, and essential services were knocked offline. It was a wake-up call: digital threats could now paralyze a country just as effectively as tanks and missiles. 

May 1, 2025, brought significant changes to design protection in the EU. Here are three key updates no designer should overlook:

On 17 June 2025, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a bill on the establishment of the central budget for 2026, which would amend several laws, including the Hungarian ESG Act.

The below reforms are designed to support Ukraine’s commitments under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and aim to improve legal clarity, transparency, and accountability for the use of state aid.

The Ministry of Economic Development has conducted a public consultation on the draft Law on Class Actions. The primary reason for adopting a special law which regulates matters related to the collective protection of consumers is, above all, the harmonization of Montenegrin legislation with EU law, specifically with Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC. The goal is to prevent and sanction mass violations of consumer rights by traders in the market, while also ensuring fair compensation for harmed consumers. In this text, we briefly present the most important amendments and innovations introduced by the draft Law on Class Actions.

The Hungarian Government’s Spring Tax Package adopted on 11 June 2025 introduced significant changes to tax legislation, aligning with international standards and strengthening domestic revenue strategies. The 91-page draft bill proposes multiple structural reforms to Hungary’s tax system. Several provisions previously regulated by Government decrees, such as the retail surtax and insurance tax, will now be incorporated directly into law. Additionally, new regulations are introduced and existing ones revised.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia recently adopted a Decree on Additional Requirements for Placing on the Market Products Containing Palm Oil, Palm Fat, or Other Vegetable Oils and Fats ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 47/2025), which entered into force on 7 June 2025 (“the Decree”).

On 1 May 2025, it was four years since the Czech Act on the Screening of Foreign Investments came into force.

On 14 June 2025, amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Organisation of Labour Relations under Martial Law” came into effect. Please note that the provisions of this law apply during the period of martial law.

According to a government decree issued on 5 June 2025, the annual rebate amount to be deposited to the collection account for supporting Hungarian film productions increases from HUF 69 billion to HUF 81 billion in 2025. The rebate remains unchanged at 30%, however, an annual cap of HUF 407 billion for new registrations has also been introduced.

Lenders under foreign law credit arrangements subjected to the competence of English or other non-EEA courts – whose judgments (as opposed to those from EEA courts) are not automatically recognised or enforced in Bulgaria – often seek separate guarantees, allowing them to directly sue Bulgarian guarantors (e.g. wealthy domestic subsidiaries of multinational borrowers) in Bulgaria and obtain local court injunctions. Using the typical Bulgarian law guarantee arrangements subjected to the competence of Bulgarian courts in such cases is problematic.