On April 1, Divjak Topic Bahtijarevic & Krka announced that Havas Ground Handling’s acquisition of MZLZ Ground Handling Services (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 22, 2022) has closed.

Katya and Mike are startup founders. Their small software-based company has grown tenfold in the last year and a half, primarily due to the innovative UX of their app and excellent yet cheap marketing campaign on social media. While Katya is the technical wizard with a degree in data sciences and design, Mike, the finance expert, holds the business end of their young venture. Still, as much as they worked hard bootstrapping and crowdfunding, they are painfully aware that, without further institutional investments, their future growth will be very limited and definitely below the potential of their solution.

On February 24, four leading lawyers in Croatia sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea. The conversation focused on the current state of affairs of ESG in the country at the moment and the challenges of raising awareness in the topic.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Vladimir Rangeloff of Kambourov & Partners to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

Croatian law firm Batarelo Dvojkovic Vuchetich has joined the South East Legal Alliance on March 9, 2022.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Silvije Cipcic-Bragadin of Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic and Associates to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Gabor Bebok of Pontes Budapest to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

This review was prepared for Ukrainian refugees by the law firm Ilej & Partners in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners upon request and in coordination with the international legal network Multilaw and Ukrainian law firm Arzinger. The review is as of March 11, 2022. The review is not a legal advice and is for informational purposes only. For updates, please follow www.multilaw.com and/or www.arzinger.ua

The Russian Federation invasion of the Republic of Ukraine and the consequent economic response from the West has led to negative effects in the business of companies based in the Republic of Croatia.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Oana Ijdelea of Ijdelea & Associates to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

Acting on the filed request for establishing of the violation of right to personal data protection, the Croatian data protection authority (“Authority”) passed on December 30, 2021, a decision pursuant to which publishing of personal data shall not be held violation of the right to protection thereof provided that it is made for the public interest.

As the COVID-19 pandemic globally swept away the business-as-usual concept, many countries, including Croatia, were faced with a rising problem of workplace-based COVID-19 transmissions. Croatia had a remote work (RW) framework initially introduced in 2003, but its application in practice was considered rather exotic. Once RW became one of the main workplace-related responses to COVID-19, authorities and employers were suddenly faced with interpretation and implementation problems. As a temporary solution, the Ministry of Labor and Pension System (Ministry) issued a number of opinions regarding the RW regime. These opinions were intended to loosen the regulatory grip, usually by turning a blind eye to unambiguous and mandatory statutory requirements, for example, by interpreting that a pandemic constitutes such circumstances under which employers are allowed to unilaterally impose a RW regime.

Back in September 2021, the revised Act on the prohibition of unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food supply chain (the "UTPs Act") entered into force. As in all other EU Member States, the Croatian UTPs Act was revised to bring Croatia's legal framework in the area of unfair trading practices in business-to-business relations in the agricultural and food supply chain into compliance with the UTPs Directive.

The biggest story in Croatia, according to Kovacevic Prpic Simeunovic Partner Martina Prpic, is the preparatory work for the upcoming switch to EUR as the official currency, complemented by EU-driven updates impacting consumer protection, agriculture, and the upcoming tourist season.

Former Senior Associate Mia Kalajdzic has been appointed Partner and Head of the Employment practice area group at CMS Croatia, while former Senior Associate Sasa Sodja was appointed Partner and Head of the Corporate and M&A practice at CMS Slovenia.

On January 26, DTB announced that United Group's acquisition of the majority stake in Optima Telekom (reported by CEE Legal Matters on July 16, 2021) has now closed. 

Sustainable finance is at the very heart of the financial system ensuring financial service providers offer green products and push them and the corporate businesses to be greener, to reach a higher level of social and corporate relevance when making investment or financing decisions.

The Croatian tech sector has been booming lately. With Rimac and Infobip achieving unicorn status, several other tech companies well on their way to a valuation above EUR 1 billion, and the recent successful listing of several IT companies, it seems like the Croatian tech party is going strong, and everyone is invited.