Several measures related to the Labour Code and other employment legislation have been adopted by the Romanian Government and have immediate effect on employment relationships.

In April 2018, the European Commission imposed a fine of €124.5 million on French multinational telecommunications and mass media company Altice, for implementing its acquisition of PT Portugal before the Commission had approved the transaction and before the acquisition had even been notified to the Commission in some respects. In its judgment in Altice Europe v Commission, issued on September 22, 2021 (Case T-425/18), the European General Court (EGC), as the first instance EU court, dismissed Altice’s appeal against the Commission’s decision in its entirety, although it did reduce the original fine by €6.2 million, to €118.6 million, given that Altice had eventually notified the transaction.

In its judgment on 14 July 2021 in Case T-399/20, the General Court assessed whether there is likelihood of confusion between figurative trademarks that depict two letters from different foreign alphabets.

In recent years, the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes has been a “hot” topic in North Macedonia. In 2016, the country regulated the procedure for the cultivation and production of hemp and hemp extracts. Since then, in line with publicly available information, over 60 approvals for the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes have been issued.

Transfer of shares to a third party may cause harm to the existing shareholders and create undesired consequences for them. For example, share transfer may result in the entry of an undesired third party into the entity as a shareholder. Therefore, shareholders may require strict measures to be taken for protecting the corporate structure of the entity, preventing the entry of undesired third party to the entity, preventing deadlock when reaching a decision, preventing the sale of company’s shares to its competitors, protecting the rights of the minority shareholders, etc.

An amendment to the VAT Act in e-commerce is expected to come into effect in the coming days as part of the ongoing law-making process. The amendment implements the EU Council’s tax package into the Czech system of laws. It also introduces significant changes to imports, cross-border trade within the EU and extends the possibilities for the use of the special one-stop-shops.

The Ministry of Health passed a new bylaw within the health care system. The Rulebook on Forms in Health Care System was published in the Official Gazette of RS no. 31/2021 on March 31, 2021, and entered into force on April 8, 2021 (the “Rulebook”).

The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated ex officio antitrust proceedings against Atlantic Group, Atlantic Brands and Strauss Adriatic and conducted dawn raids, in order to investigate potential existence of restrictive agreements.

In the context that more and more people and companies are investing in cryptocurrencies and given the fact that non-cash payments are becoming the new standard in business transactions, the national legislator has intervened in order to offer a larger protection to these types of transactions, the legislative amendments being necessary in order to cover the full spectrum of electronic criminality.

The database of rulings of Polish administrative courts already includes multiple ones related to entries into the Register of domains used to offer gambling games in contravention of the Polish Gambling Act ("Register").

The Personal Data Protection Authority [“Authority”] has published a public announcement on September 28, 2021, with respect to the collection and processing of PCR test results and information regarding vaccination status being shared with third parties to mitigate potential health risks during pandemic.

On 6 September 2021, the Competition Commission (the “Commission”) has initiated a formal procedure against company MAT – Real Estate for potential gun-jumping. The transaction concerned involves the acquisition of company Radijator d.o.o., a distributor of plumbing and heating equipment.

Following intensive negotiations between the business community and the Romanian government, the Romanian parliament has issued a bill on the enforcement of a tax amnesty for tax liabilities, including late payment interest and penalties, imposed by the tax authorities following the reassessment of daily allowances as salary income.

Not so long ago (12 years!) Serbia adopted the amendments to the Agricultural Land Act which was supposed to allow the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, mainly to support the growing renewable energy sector. Of course, this was conditioned with adopting an adequate Regulation by the Serbian Government, which everyone waited for since 2009. Finally, patience paid off and in July 2021, the Serbian Government adopted the Regulation on the conditions, manner and procedure for giving state-owned agricultural land for use for non-agricultural purposes (hereinafter: “Regulation”).

Business start-ups and terminations reflect the recovery of the Hungarian economy after the downturn following the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic. In the second quarter of last year, when the epidemic hit the country, only 5,041 companies were set up. Meanwhile, in the last three months of last year, the number was close to 9,000 and in the first quarter of this year it has already exceeded 9,000, as we discussed in a recent joint webinar with OPTEN.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (“EDPS”) has issued a guidance document entitled “Return to the Workplace and EUI’s (European Institutions, Agencies and Bodies) screening of Covid immunity or infection status” (the “Guidance”).

At the beginning of 2021 the Bulgarian Competition Protection Act (CPA) was amended, among others, with the implementation of ECN+ Directive. This brought hope that the antitrust activity of the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (CPC) may increase.

The Parliament of Federation of BiH adopted the amendments of the Company Law of Federation of BiH and the amendments have been published and entered into force on 23 September 2021. The amendments of the Law are aimed at achieving the goal set in the Reform Agenda of Federation of BiH related to simplification of the procedure for registration of business entities and setting up a one-stop-shop company registration system.