Later this year, the European Parliament is expected to pass the Regulation on Foreign Subsidies distorting the Internal Market (FSR). CEE Legal Matters spoke with Schoenherr’s Volker Weiss, Johannes Stalzer, and Jan Kupcik to learn more about the new Regulation and its impact.

The Communiqué on Increasing the Monetary Limits in Article 68 of the Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 and Article 6 of the Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees (“Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 16.12.2022 and numbered 32045.

Controversial consumer loans, unfair competition-related disputes, and changes to long-term agreements due to force- majeure events are all increasingly frequent in Poland these days, according to Wolf Theiss Partner Peter Daszkowski.

The Hungarian Parliament recently adopted a rather significant update to Act LVII of 1996 on the prohibition of unfair market practices and the restriction of competition (“Hungarian Competition Act”). The updates are, at a number of points, based on recommendations made by the Hungarian Competition Association (with DLA Piper’s antitrust group providing significant input). The amendments will generally enter into force on 1 January 2023 (with some exceptions for 1 February 2023). Below, we have collected some of the key changes for Hungarian and international businesses.

On December 1, 2022, SMM Legal announced that MOL's acquisition of Lotos Paliwa (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 2, 2022) had closed. Subsequently, Baker McKenzie announced that Orlen Unipetrol's acquisition of Hungarian petrol stations from MOL (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 1, 2022) had closed as well. 

An amendment to the Czech Significant Market Power Act (the "SMP Act"), which should harmonise Czech law with the EU directive on unfair business practices (the "Directive"), was recently signed by the President and will become effective as of 1 January 2023.