In Turkey, 2021 continued to be dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the various legal difficulties and ambiguities that it brought. This raised several questions on how to apply the Turkish data protection law and related legislation, in particular about how to properly process data on health, vaccination status, and PCR tests.
Merger Control Trends in Turkey
Despite uncertainty due to the pandemic, the pace of merger activity in Turkey has not decreased and merger control is still one of the Turkish Competition Authority’s (TCA) key enforcement areas. The Law on Protection of Competition (Competition Law) amendment in June 2020 was a milestone for merger control in Turkey as it changed the substantive test for assessment of mergers. Below are some observations regarding the adoption of the new test and the TCA’s recent approach to merger control and remedies.
Crowdfunding in Turkey in Light of Current Regulations
Crowdfunding is a new generation funding and investment system which allows different individuals to invest in a project in exchange for shares or interest. Crowdfunding offers an alternative funding market that creates a win-win situation for entrepreneurs and investors.
The Turkish Agricultural Sector and the Impact of ESG Awareness and Regulation in 2021
Turkey is the world’s tenth largest agricultural producer and a hub for many top global players in food production. The country is accelerating the integration of sustainability principles into the sector’s growth strategies.
Nazali: Expanding Horizons
It is not often that a CEE law firm decides to expand beyond the borders of its home market. Seeking out clients abroad and maintaining a standard of quality service is not only taxing but may also prove harmful – if not planned correctly.
Guest Editorial: Impressions From the New Kid on the Block
When much was happening around the world, especially with the global pandemic, we decided to start our firm – Guleryuz & Partners – in September 2020. We made a major investment ignoring all the current challenges, including COVID-19 and the sluggish Turkish economy.
The Kuria Agrees: Facebook’s Service is “Free and Always Will Be”
On December 7, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Lakatos, Koves and Partners had successfully represented Facebook Ireland in a dispute with the Hungarian Competition Authority before the Kuria – the Hungarian supreme court. CEELM spoke with LKT Partner and Co-Head of Competition Eszter Ritter, who led the team, to learn more about the case.
Flugger Marches On: Interview with General Counsel Torben Schwaner Dehlholm
In the past year, Danish company Flugger has begun a significant expansion across Europe and Russian-speaking parts of the world. We reached out to Flugger General Counsel Torben Schwaner Dehlholm to learn more about the company’s business and expansion, as well as its M&A strategy and in-house legal dynamics.
Face-to-Face: Pal Jalsovszky and Ildiko Kollar
Jalsovszky Law Firm’s Managing Partner Pal Jalsovszky interviews Prologis Legal Counsel CEE Ildiko Kollar.
Checking In with Greece
January is always a good time to look back, take stock, and make plans. And 2021, while a complicated year, was in no way uneventful. Across CEE, we’ve had lawyers and law firms variously reporting on – besides the obvious pandemic-related restrictions and increased work flexibility – a record year for M&A transactions, growing green energy, effervescent capital markets, a surprisingly solid real estate sector, ascendant ESG practices, a renewed focus on infrastructure, and TMT going from strength to strength.
Inquiry Into IP: Three CEE Boutiques
Practicing IP has always been a tricky matter, given the complexity and the diversity of this area of law. We reached out to experts from several IP-focused law firms – Hungary’s SBGK, Serbia’s Petosevic Group, and Greece’s Drakopoulos – to learn more about their origins, specializations, structures, and operations.
Guest Editorial: A Brief Insight Into the Greek Legal Market
The legal profession in Greece has changed and been upgraded in recent years in the context of providing legal services and support across a spectrum of economic, social, and technological developments. Modern lawyering is directly linked to the needs of the client in very specific areas (such as economy, energy, health, immigration, personal data, and artificial intelligence). In the past 30 years, Greece has witnessed the establishment of the institution of law firms, the transition to a new era of cooperative action, and the gradual abandonment of the legal office as the sole dominant model of legal practice. Law firms that form a structured group and provide a comprehensive package of services operate in a dynamic manner, evolving in line with market requirements. This is also a guarantee for young lawyers who seek better working conditions, remuneration, and career prospects.
Hungary: The Downturn in Employment Disputes – Not Worth Involving Courts Anymore?
Almost ten years ago, in 2012, major changes were introduced in Hungarian employment law, including a new Employment Code. The updated rules had a significant impact on market practice and, consequently, on the volume of employment litigation. The latter number was further influenced, however, by the new Code of Civil Procedure, which came into effect in January 2018. In this article, we offer insight and explanation for the possible causes of the decreasing number of employment lawsuits.
Slovenia: Spin-off Company Liable for Claims of Untransferred Employees?
Picture a situation where a company divests a part of its business to create a new company. Employees are transferred to the spin-off company too. Based on Article 75 of the Employment Relationship Act (ZDR-1), the provisions on the transfer of an undertaking (change of employer) then apply. The article governs the joint and several liability of both the transferor and transferee company; however, it limits liability solely to the claims of employees who were actually transferred.
Regulating the Romanian Gig Economy
Digitalization and technology have seen incredible evolutions over the past years worldwide. This development has fostered the perfect environment for the gig economy to be able to sustain incredible growth. Short-term working agreements between companies and workers, which are paid after every undertaken task, are at the foundation of the gig economy and they seem to be more popular with every passing day. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to have been yet another factor that allowed this market sector to reach new heights, with more and more people turning to online platforms as an additional source of income. These people are generally labeled as ‘platform workers.’
Croatia To Upgrade the Rules on Remote Working
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.
Past, Present, and Future of Czech Employment Law
Since 2020, employers and employees in the Czech Republic, as well as elsewhere, have been preoccupied with issues relating to COVID-19, not least the employees’ testing, quarantines, or vaccination. It is without question that the pandemic has left its footprint on the Czech labor market and provided an impetus to many current trends. Looking beyond the pandemic, this article will focus on the development of the Czech employment market in a post-COVID-19 world and the role that Czech employment law will play in it.
Kurzarbeit in Slovakia – Effective Measure for Employers in Times of Crisis?
Based on the new Act on Support During Short-Time Work, also known as Kurzarbeit, the employers’ new permanent support scheme will apply as of January 1, 2022, in Slovakia. The basic aim of the new regulation is to compensate employers financially for temporary loss of working hours and thereby preserve employment. Kurzarbeit can be applied if an employer is forced to reduce its operational activities due to temporary external factors beyond its control that have a negative economic impact on its business, particularly the declaration of a state of emergency, state of crisis, or force majeure. Furthermore, the Kurzarbeit allowance applies only in case at least one-third of the employer’s workforce is not assigned work for at least 10% of their working hours.