Integrites has successfully defended the interests of Dominoni, an Italian manufacturer of agricultural machinery, in an unfair competition claim made to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

Hillmont Partners has successfully defended the interests of Delta Wilmar Ukraine in a dispute with the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine.

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Eligo on its acquisition of the Czech branch of Euroserum.

Walless has advised DiPocket on setting up a subsidiary in Lithuania and obtaining an electronic money institution license from the Bank of Lithuania.

Zivkovic Samardzic has been appointed the representative of SNAP Inc. under the Serbian Data Protection Act, following a decision by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

Kochanski & Partners has helped Idea Bank become the first Polish financial service sector entity to obtain the ISO 27017 and ISO 27001 certifications, confirming that its cloud computing solutions meet the necessary international standards. 

Asters has successfully defended PrivatBank CB JSC in a dispute with the Bukovel Ski Resort heard by the Commercial Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

Boyanov & Co has helped Ideal Standard Vidima obtain a loan of EUR 65 million, with EUR 45 million coming the DSK Bank and another EUR 20 million from the United Bulgarian Bank. 

Walless has advised DiPocket on setting up a subsidiary in Lithuania and obtaining an electronic money institution license from the Bank of Lithuania.

Sorainen has advised the Modus Group on launching a second public bond issuance, expected to attract investment of EUR 8 million. The bonds are being distributed by Saiuliu Bankas and will be traded on First North, an alternative market administrated by Nasdaq.

SSW Pragmatic Solutions has advised Stelmet on the squeeze-out and withdrawal of its shares from the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Stelmet’s majority shareholder, Stanislaw Bienkowski, purchased all of the shares previously owned by minority shareholders.

SSW Pragmatic Solutions has helped Mo-BRUK get prospectus approval from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

The adoption of Directive 2014/104/EU ("Damages Directive"), which introduced a level playing field for the private competition law enforcement regime among EU Member States, has paved the way for private enforcement to gain more traction in the EU.

MPR Partners has helped J. Christof E&P Services S.R.L. and Christof Private Firefighting Services S.R.L. provide notification to Romanian and Serbian competition authorities of the economic concentration arising from OMV Petrom’s externalization of several operations and general surface services ancillary to extraction and production of petroleum as well as natural gas, together with the relevant assets and dedicated staff. D&B David and Baias and Karanovic & Partners provided advice to J. Christof E&P and Christof Private Firefighting Services.

Last week, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine commenced a public discussion of strategic changes to Ukrainian competition law.

Zivkovic Samardzic has been appointed the representative of SNAP Inc. under the Serbian Data Protection Act, following a decision by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.

Jankovic Popovic Mitic has helped chemical company BASF implement GDPR best practices in Serbia.

Boyanov & Co has formed new practice groups in Technology, Corporate Governance and Compliance, and Construction Law. 

The Latvian office of Sorainen has advised the USS Grupp on its acquisition of the Latvian branch of the Securitas security services company.

Squire Patton Boggs and Eversheds Sutherland have advised the Miss Group on its acquisition of Interneto Vizija from its founders. Walless advised the sellers on the deal.

The Lithuanian office of TGS Baltic has advised the Maxima Group on the merger of its Maxima LT and (Netherlands-based) Lincoln Land Erste subsidiaries. 

Sorainen has advised the Modus Group on launching a second public bond issuance, expected to attract investment of EUR 8 million. The bonds are being distributed by Saiuliu Bankas and will be traded on First North, an alternative market administrated by Nasdaq.

Asters has advised Naftogaz Energoservice on the construction of a 33 megawatt solar power plant in Chudniv, Ukraine.

Former Partner at Radzikowski, Szubielksa i Wspolnicy Igor Muszynski has become a partner in SSW Pragmatic Solutions' Energy practice.

Cobalt, acting pro bono, has represented the "Association of LGBT and Their Friends Mozaika" as amicus curiae before the Constitutional Court of Latvia regarding the right of same-sex couples to parental leave.

Eterna Law has helped the War Childhood Museum project open a museum in Ukraine.

BDK Advokati has launched a Human Rights Protection & Litigation practice, led by Attorney-at-Law Relja Radovic.

Motieka & Audzevicius has successfully represented the Panevezio Keliai road construction company in a dispute against the City of Vilnius administration that reached the Supreme Court of Lithuania.

Pohla & Hallmagi has helped Verston Ehitus acquire Estonia's state-owned road maintenance company AS Eesti Teed at public auction with a winning bid of EUR 19.7 million. Ellex Raidla reportedly advised the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications on the auction.

Cobalt has successfully represented Helmes, an international custom software developer, in disputes regarding the public procurement process for "Development and Maintenance Services for Collection App Software" organized by Estonia's Information Technology Center of the Ministry of Finance.

Kinstellar has re-launched its Restructuring and Insolvency practice, with the new iteration to be co-led by Csilla Andreko, Head of Kinstellar's Banking & Finance practice, and Denise Hamer, Kinstellar Head of C/SEE Asset Solutions.

If a company has fulfilled its purpose, its further existence is unprofitable, or if there are other justifying reasons, it is usually best to dissolve such a company and have it deregistered from the commercial register. Where the company has no legal successors to which its assets could be transferred, it must, however, first go into liquidation.

Baker McKenzie’s Warsaw office has launched a Restructuring & Insolvency Practice, co-led by Counsels Karol Czepukojc and Pawel Dlugoborski.

Two normative acts have recently been adopted that establish a teleworking obligation:

New amendments to the Labour Code (Law no. 53/2003) have come into force, including an optional conciliation procedure for individual labour disputes.

The SEE Legal law firm alliance has announced the formal launch of two new practice groups, one dedicated to Employment and Immigration, headed by Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocakli Counsel Maral Minasyan, and one dedicated to Intellectual Property, headed by Selih & Partnerji Partner Natasa Pipan Nahtigal.

Yigit Issever has joined Bayer as Legal Counsel and Pharmaceuticals and Radiology Business Partner in Istanbul.

CMS has advised Discovery Life Sciences, a US-based bio-specimen, genomic sequencing, cell, and immunohistochemistry services firm, on its acquisition of East West Biopharma, a Ukraine-based human bio-specimen solutions organization.

Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic & Associates has advised Pfizer on a global business combination with Mylan N.V. The transaction involved a spin-off of Pfizer’s Upjohn business and a subsequent merger of that business with Mylan N.V. to form a new global generics company, called "Viatris." Bird & Bird was global lead counsel to Pfizer, with Karanovic & Partners providing local support for Serbia and Jadek & Pensa providing local support in Slovenia. 

TGS Baltic has successfully represented Lithuanian Airports in a dispute with the Active Construction Management over major repairs carried out in Vilnius Airport.

Asters has successfully defended PrivatBank CB JSC in a dispute with the Bukovel Ski Resort heard by the Commercial Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

Former Senior Associate Oleg Todua has been promoted to Local Partner at White & Case’s Moscow office as part of a global promotions round.

JDP has helped the 4PL Central Station Group establish a joint venture with an unidentified Polish company. Grant Thornton advised the Polish co-venturer on the deal. 

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has successfully represented ZMK 1520 in a dispute with New Forwarding Company over the replacement supply of railway wagons heard by  the Supreme Court of Russia.

Hedman Partners has become Solaride’s legal advisor on its project to build a solar-powered car in Estonia.

Gugushev & Partners has helped Fr. Lurssen Werft GmbH & Co KG, part of Northern Germany's Lurssen shipyard group, win a public tender for the supply of two multipurpose modular patrol vessels to the Bulgarian Navy.

The Odessa office of Ilyashev & Partners has successfully represented Challenging Shipping Ltd. in its appeal of a decision of the State Ecological Inspection of Ukraine imposing an administrative penalty onto the captain of one of its ships, New Challenge, for contaminating the harbor waters in the Mykolayiv seaport.

Sayenko Kharenko has advised the Orexim Group on the sale of Ukraine's Everi port terminal to Renaisco B.V., a subsidiary of Glencore Agriculture Limited. Baker McKenzie’s Kyiv and London offices reportedly advised the buyers on the deal.

Sorainen has advised venture capital fund Startup Wise Guys on its investment in the logistics startup GoRamp. Startup Wise Guys, together with Presto Ventures, invested EUR 450,000.

Herbst Kinsky has advised investment company Round2Capital Partners GmbH & Co KG on its EUR 6.6 million financing round.

Herbst Kinsky has advised Austrian start-up Trality on attracting EUR 1.5 million in financing from a group of German investors including Blockrocket, VC Tokentus, FFG, and AWS.

Cobalt, acting pro bono, has represented the "Association of LGBT and Their Friends Mozaika" as amicus curiae before the Constitutional Court of Latvia regarding the right of same-sex couples to parental leave.

Ilyashev & Partners, working pro bono on behalf of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, has persuaded a large network of medical centers in Ukraine to discontinue its illegal use of the Red Cross emblem.

Asters has helped the Tabletochki Fund organize the DobroRun charity race, involving over 1200 individuals from Ukraine and 16 other countries.

The Estonian office of Fort Legal has advised LHV Pension Funds on the acquisition of three stock office-type commercial buildings in Juri in the Rae municipality of Estonia. The transaction remains contingent on Competition Authority approval.

Ellex Valiunas has advised Norway's Baltic Sea Properties real estate management company on its sale of 13 buildings to Rivona, a subsidiary of the Norfa Group.

Pohla & Hallmagi has advised Arca Varahaldus on its EUR 6.2 million sale of property in Tallinn to EfTEN Real Estate Fund III AS subsidiary EfTEN SPV19 OU. 

Asters has successfully represented the Globus shopping center in a dispute with the Ukrainian tax authority, heard by the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv.

In 2014 Hungary introduced the advertisement tax as a direct business tax that must be paid by media content and service providers and publishers of advertisements. The tax base is the net sales revenue originating from the taxable activities in the tax year, i.e. the turnover and not the profit, and a progressive tax rate was established originally with six tax rates between 0% and 40%. After several amendments, since 1 July 2017 the tax rates were 0% up to HUF 100 million and 7.5% for the portion exceeding this amount. From 1 July 2019 the advertisement has been temporarily suspended and the tax rate was decreased to 0%.

Varga Mihály, Minister of Finance submitted the autumn tax changes package to the Hungarian Parliament, including the proposed changes for VAT in 2021. The draft contains detailed implementing rules for the EU e-commerce package and related administrative requirements, as well as several additional changes to the Hungarian VAT Act, as follows:

Squire Patton Boggs and Eversheds Sutherland have advised the Miss Group on its acquisition of Interneto Vizija from its founders. Walless advised the sellers on the deal.

Schoenherr has advised Christian Bamberger, SK Capital GmbH, Foxyflo GmbH, Christian Waldheim, and Martin Mrvka on the sale of 100% of shares in Austrian communication-platform-as-a-service companies ATMS, SMS.AT, and WebSMS to Norwegian Link Mobility Holding ASA. AGP Advokater AS and EY Law advised Link Mobiliy on the transaction, which closed on November 16, 2020.

Hogan Lovells’s Moscow office has advised Digital Assets on its acquisition of Zvuk, a Russian independent music streaming service.

Over the last couple of months, CEE Legal Matters reported on the launch by Romania's Mares & Mares law firm of two new alliances with firms specialized in White-Collar Crime – one in Moldova and one in Israel. We spoke with Mihai Mares, founder and Managing Partner of the firm, about his career and his firm's history, as well as the rationale behind the new alliances.

Mares & Mares and the Tel Aviv-based Israeli-European Regulatory Consultancy firm have announced they are teaming-up to cooperate in criminal cases in the fintech, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity industries. 

Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has successfully defended Ilya Averyanov, the former owner of the Menshevik Confectionary in South-Eastern Moscow, in a trial involving charges that he murdered a guard at the factory.