Contributed by JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic.

JPM partner Nikola Djordjevic and Senior Associate Marija Vukcevic single out and analyze official clarifications and opinions on the application of financial regulations for January 2022, related to taxes, which have been published in the latest newsletter of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia.

Serbian Republic Geodetic Authority has recently added various new online features and services available both for professional users and citizens, in its overall efforts to implement the principle of development of electronic services.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many changes in doing business and, therefore, also had a significant impact on regulating the mutual rights, obligations, and responsibilities deriving from employment.

The introduction of new e-services of the Serbian Business Registers Agency and the beginning of the application of online-based fiscalization are rapidly bringing the Serbian corporate environment to the corporate standards of developed countries.

Pursuant to the Law on utilization of renewable energy sources (“Official gazette of the RS” no. 40/2021, “Law on RES”), Government of the Republic of Serbia has in November 2021 adopted two new regulations: i) the Regulation on Market Premium and Feed-In Tariff and ii) the Regulation on Market Premium Model Agreement.

The deadline for preparation of general acts and their obligatory submission to the competent Archive is approaching - December 31, 2021.

On 28 October 2021, Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (“AERS”) adopted Rules on prevention of abuse in electric energy and natural gas market (“Rules”), that were published in the Official gazette of the Republic of Serbia 103/2021. The Rules are drafted in line with the Decision of Ministerial Council of the Energy Community no. D/2018/10/Mc-EnC, implementing Regulation (EU) No 122712011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency.

In 2020 and 2021 there were no developments towards the adoption of the new law and bylaws regarding competition/antirust (a process that started in 2017), probably due to the coronavirus pandemic. Certain changes in respect to the enforcement of competition rules were introduced during 2020, due to COVID-19, such as a new manner of communicating with the Serbian Competition Commission, a prolongation of the deadlines during the state of emergency in Serbia, etc. However, all subject changes have been put out of force and are being restored to the state prior to COVID-19.

 In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. With summer having just passed, the question this time: What is your one favorite yearly activity to disconnect?

The amendments to the Serbian Energy Law, enacted in late April 2021, prescribed the obligation for transmission system operators in the electricity and natural gas sector to implement the EU electricity and natural gas network codes.

The amendments to the Serbian Energy Law, enacted in late April 2021, prescribed the obligation for transmission system operators in the electricity and natural gas sector to implement the EU electricity and natural gas network codes.

The OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (IF) has agreed on 8 October 2021 a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. The Republic of Serbia is one of 136 jurisdictions that have agreed to the solution.

How certain is the development of the ever-increasing use and application of electronic documents, especially in terms of legalization of documents for international legal transactions?

The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated ex officio antitrust proceedings against Atlantic Group, Atlantic Brands and Strauss Adriatic and conducted dawn raids, in order to investigate potential existence of restrictive agreements.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted a new Law on Consumer Protection (“Law”) on 09 September 2021. The main reason for adopting the amendments to the current law lies in providing a higher level of consumer protection and trying to apply it more actively, in relation to the Law from 2014 and its subsequent amendments from 2016 and 2018. The most prominent novelty concerns direct marketing by telephone, ie the introduction of the “do not call” register. The “do not call” register is a list of landline and mobile telephone numbers of consumers who do not want to receive calls and / or messages as part of the promotion, marketing and / or sale by telephone.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia introduced the newest amendments of the Rulebook on Conditions and Procedure for Public Bidding for Lease/Use of State Owned Agricultural Land, which came into force on 24 June 2021.

When advising organisations how to comply their businesses with GDPR, i.e., with the Serbian Law on Personal Data Protection, many times we received answers that organisations apply “best information security practices”. What does this formulation mean?