During the current pandemic crisis, courts in countries around the world have had to suspend their regular operations and have focused only on the most urgent and time-sensitive matters. Yet the first few online courts have been able to maintain regular service. This has led to a massive increase in interest in and awareness of online dispute resolution (ODR) and online courts among judges, arbitrators, mediators, and lawyers in general. The pandemic has highlighted the ability of ODR to keep operating in crises that impact physical operations. Suddenly Zoom and even email are being considered ODR technology because they enable online court proceedings and distant mediations.

Kocian Solc Balastik and Germany's Heuking Kuhn Luer Wojtek have advised China-based Inner Mongolia Mengtai on the acquisition of the Czech part of the Apt group.

The Supreme Court of the Czech Republic recently issued an interesting decision concerning the employment of a managing director and an accident at work. It should be noted that this decision does not relate to a long-term problem with the concurrence of functions, i.e. the (im)possibility of performing the function of a managing director in an employment relationship, but reflects a situation where the managing director performs non-parallel work, i.e. work outside the function of a statutory body.

Eversheds Sutherland has advised Expandia on the sale of the Hamburg Business Center office complex in Pilsen, in the Czech Republic.

Bird & Bird has advised KB SmartSolutions on its strategic entry into Upvest.

The BDO network of independent tax, audit, accounting, and other professional services firms has launched a law firm in the Czech Republic, with offices in Prague and Brno.

Allen & Overy has advised Czech Gas Networks Investments on its successful issuance and placement of EUR 600 million and CZK 6.75 billion notes with investors on international capital markets. Clifford Chance reportedly advised joint book-runners Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG, Societe Generale, UniCredit Bank AG, Ceska Sporitelna, a.s., Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka, a. s., and Komercni Banka, a.s., as well as trustee Citicorp Trustee Company Limited and the London branch of Citibank, which acted as the paying agent, transfer agent, and the agent bank.

We decided to lighten the mood this time around by asking our Law Firm Marketing experts from across the region a non-law-firm related question: “What did you most want to be when you were little?”

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Skoda Transportation Group on the acquisition of Ostrava-based Ekova Electric.

Stay informed about the latest developments in competition law in Central and Eastern Europe with Schoenherr's multi-jurisdictional newsletter. Each issue offers insight into developments in merger control, anti-trust, as well as public and private enforcement in the region.

The exchange of personal data between the European Union and the United States have suffered a further setback as the EU Court of Justice ruled against the Commission’s Privacy Shield Decision in the Schrems II case. The consequences could be far-reaching, and impact data flows not only to the United States. While the Court upheld the Commission’s decision regarding Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), any data flow to a third country must respect the GDPR principles and protect the fundamental freedoms of European citizens. The Court made clear that any jurisdiction, into which personal data are transferred, must offer an essentially equivalent level of personal data protection assessed considering both contractual clauses agreed between transferring parties and the relevant aspects of third country’s legal system. Consequently, not only big companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, or Google, but also small and medium-sized businesses, must evaluate all data transfers to non-EU countries and assess the potential risks for the data in question.

The following Q&A is an extract of the Private Equity Trends Monitor, which provides you with an up-to-date overview of the latest and anticipated trends across the European private equity sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report on trends and developments will be issued every two months as the situation continues to evolve. This extract covers private equity deal activity in Central and Eastern Europe.

The state of emergency is over, government measures are slowly easing up and we are entering the unknown as regards further developments in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (but let’s leave that to the experts). The time is now here to calculate the current and future damage. The measures taken by the government have had an enormous impact on the economy as a whole, as well as on practically every legal and natural person individually: freedom of movement has been restricted, shops and restaurants have been ordered to shut, a ban has been placed on the provision of services and the borders have been closed (all subject to only a few minor exceptions primarily aimed at ensuring basic needs and supplies are satisfied). Furthermore, the government has adopted a number of measures to provide relief to persons affected by the coronavirus pandemic and by the government’s restrictive measures.

Dentons has announced the appointment of three partners to European practice and sector leadership roles, with Anita Horvath to co-lead the Europe Energy group, Christopher Rose to lead the Global Private Services sector group within Europe, and Thomas Schubert to lead the Europe Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies group.


On 23 October 2019, a new directive of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the "Directive") was signed. It requires Member States to adopt laws, among other things, obliging companies to establish reporting channels and to ensure sufficient protection of whistleblowers. The Directive also provides for penalties applicable to both individuals and legal entities. Such national regulations and related whistleblowing measures shall come into force in less than two years. Please find below a brief summary of the legal aspects, the new obligations and the possible penalties in relation to the new whistleblowing Directive.

It has been roughly a year since the somewhat controversial DSM Directive entered into force on June 7, 2019. The clock is ticking as the EU member states are required to transpose the Directive into national law within 24 months—a half of which is already gone. The most discussed provisions of the DSM Directive are included in its Articles 15 and 17.

On June 26, 2020, a significant amendment to the Czech Labor Code, (which we informed you about in our newsletter back in February 2020), was published in the Collection of Laws as the Act No. 285/2020 Coll. Adoption of the amendment was originally planned with an earlier date, but was delayed due to extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus. Nevertheless, apart from this delay, the adoption procedure was smooth and the amendment (particularly as a result of the previous tripartite consensus) did not undergo any significant changes during the legislative procedure.

White & Case has advised Hungary's state-owned energy group MVM on the acquisition of the entire share capital in Innogy Czech Republic from Innogy Beteiligungsholding, a member of the Innogy/E.ON Group. Hengeler Mueller advised E.ON on the deal.