The commercial law team at Eversheds Sutherland in the Czech Republic has selected the TOP 10 case law decisions of 2022.

In the Hungarian HoReCa sector, the question of how much competition there is in the market for beverage procurement has been on the agenda of the Hungarian competition authority and the political discourse for some time.

An administrative novelty comes early this year from the Serbian Business Registers Agency (“SBRA”) by introducing electronic registration with the Registry of Bidders.

Governance is primarily covered in the ESRS G1 Business Conduct section of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards framework (ESRS, November 2022 draft). Requirement G1-1 represents one of its six main areas. In this article, we cover the information required for reports under the G1-1 Corporate Culture and Business Conduct requirement.

Due diligence review, which is frequent in acquisition transactions, basically refers to an examination of the target company prior to the buyer's acquisition. This term originates from Anglo-American legal system, and Swiss-Turkish doctrine has yet to generate a new term and thus uses the term “due diligence” in their legal terminology.

With technological advancements changing both how antitrust laws are enforced and how undertakings violate competition laws, the fourth industrial revolution and the rapid growth of AI continue to affect this area of law, as many others. It is impossible to ignore the potential for AI to conquer markets and its ability to spot and fix basic market balance violations. Despite the benefits of technology for customers, it also threatens their interests by distorting market dynamics and impacting competition.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court ruled on the validity of a provision in an agreement on a future agreement and which provided for an "automatic" transfer of the ownership title to the object of the sale if the future agreement was not concluded within a certain period of time. Essentially, both an agreement on a future agreement, which anticipated the subsequent conclusion of the transfer agreement, and a conditional transfer agreement itself were included in one document. The Supreme Court found that such an arrangement did not invalidate the agreement.

April 2023 – On 12 April 2023, the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) announced that it initiated a sector inquiry into mobile ecosystems. The sector inquiry aims to identify the possible competitive and anti-competitive effects caused by mobile ecosystems, develop effective policies based on them, and ultimately establish a competitive market in the digital economy.

Last Thursday the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") issued a long awaited ruling on damages resulting from a data protection infringement (C-300/21). Since the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation; "GDPR") came into force on 25 May 2018, claims for damages under Art 82 GDPR due to alleged data protection violations like unlawful data processing or incompliance with the GDPR as well as in the context of data breaches or leaks have been steadily increasing. The CJEU's recent ruling clarifies essential issues but raises just as many questions.

Until recently, news reports regarding cookies have only discussed the gigantic fines imposed by foreign data protection authorities (DPAs) on tech giants (Google, Amazon, Meta). For economic reasons, operators of simple websites are continuing to use their illegal practices without risk until the last possible moment.

Serbian Minister of Finance issued the Rulebook on interest rates that are considered to be in line with the arm’s length principle for the year 2023 (the Rulebook), which enters into force on 6 April 2023.

The Serbian Competition Commission initiated an infringement investigation. On 20 April 2023, the Commission for the Protection of the Competition (“Commission”) initiated one more infringement investigation and carried out a dawn raid, this time against KTG Solucije d.o.o. Subotica (“KTG”) and Eco-Sense doo Subotica (“Eco Sense”) for possible RPM (resale price maintenance) and sharing of markets or source of supply in public procurement proceedings related to the materials and means for maintaining hygiene in facilities.

On 5 April 2023, the Government approved a long-awaited amendment to the Labour Code that incorporates several European directives and brings a number of fundamental changes that will affect most employers.The draft amendment will now be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies. If it passes swiftly, which is expected, the amendment could already be mostly effective during the summer holidays.

The Ministry of Commerce of the Republic of Serbia has announced that the applications regarding the incorporation of companies (among others, limited liability companies and joint stock companies) can be submitted only in electronic form as of 18 May 2023 via a designated user application of the Serbian Business Registers Agency (“SBRA”).

Start-up, which was first introduced in Silicon Valley in the US, has started to be more and more involved in our lives with the globalizing world. The main purpose of start-up companies, which are rapidly increasing in number today, is to produce solutions to a specific situation or problem and provide their solutions to people in a short time. They aim to develop rapidly and become one of the most popular companies with these solutions that appeal to a wide audience. While they are mostly focused on software and technology, there are also start-up companies operating in different fields such as banking and finance.

Recent years have seen the amendment of multiple tax regulations that have introduced numerous incentives for a variety of taxpayers. These tax breaks have made Serbia a highly attractive country for foreign investment, which has in turn led to the development of a start-up ecosystem, job creation and more benefits for employees, and growth in several industries, most notably information technology (IT).

After 5 years of drafting and procedural manoeuvres, the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina finally adopted last year amendments to the Public Procurement Law.

Law No. 7445 on the Amendment of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Laws (“Law“), also known as the 7th Judicial Package, has been published in the Official Gazette numbered 32154 on April 5, 2023.