What kind of coffee do you drink?

COVID-19 pandemic caused different market distortions that imposed economic entities to various challenges, both in terms of their relations with the clients, i.e., consumers, and their mutual relations.

At Open Balkan Summit held in Tirana on December 21, 2021, several agreements were signed by Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, including the Agreement on conditions for free access to the labour market in the Western Balkans, which was subsequently ratified by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on December 29, 2021, and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia – International Agreements no. 27/2021 from December 30, 2021 (“the Agreement”).

With the global pandemic, high inflation rates, and the war in Ukraine being the main drivers of work in Serbia, PR Legal’s Corporate and M&A practice has been quite busy, according to PR Legal Partner Milan Petrovic.

PR Legal has advised Coca-Cola on its acquisition of the plant for bottling the Rosa Homolje natural mineral carbonated water in Neresnica, Serbia.

Pursuant to Article 7, paragraph 1, item 12) of the Law on Standardization (Official Gazette of RS no. 36/2009 and 46/2015) (“the Law”), the Institute for Standardization of Serbia (“the Institute”) published on April 12, 2022, the Rules for obtaining approval for the use of the National Mark of Conformity with Serbian standards (“the Rules”).

Several amendments to the by-laws passed to the Law on Electronic Invoicing (“the Law”) are published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia no. 46 dated 8 April 2022, i.e.:

Amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance (“the Law”) from 2019, notably Article 11 thereof, have eradicated the practical issues that used to exist in relation to the mandatory social insurance of persons working for foreign employers in Serbia.

Starting from March 23, 2022, Serbian Business Registers Agency (“the SBRA”) has allowed the use of electronic signature in cloud in the Special Information System for drafting and submission of financial statements.

On 4 April 2022, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia published the Explanation on Annual Citizens’ Income Tax for 2021.

An interesting case occurred before a while in Norway, when the authority competent for personal data protection was subject to complaint for infringement of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”).

According to the Law on Archival Materials and Services (Official Gazette of RS no. 6/2020) (“the Law”), creators and holders of archival and documentary material shall be obliged, in addition to other obligations set out by the Law and by-laws passed thereunder, to submit to the competent archive a transcript of archive book no later than April 30 of the current year, for documentary material created in the previous year.

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.

The Croatian data protection authority has recently passed a decision establishing the violation of the right to personal data protection in terms of the articles 5, 6 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation of EU 2016/679 (“GDPR”), due to a phone call made to the number listed in “Do-not-call” registry.

At the end of 2021, there was a public debate on the Draft Law on Internship, proposed by the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs (“the Draft”), while the final proposal is pending.

The Republic Geodetic Authority (“RGA”) has recently, within implementation of the new real estate cadastre information system, launched a Cadastral Alarm, which serves to monitor the cases, i.e. changes relating to real estate.

On January 1, 2022, certain provisions of Articles of the Rulebook on Electromagnetic Compatibility (Official Gazette of RS no. 25/2016 and 21/2020) ceased to apply, as well as of the Rulebook on Electrical Equipment Intended for Use within Certain Voltage Limits (Official Gazette of RS no. 25/2016 and 21/2020), which refer to the conformity certificate, i.e., its mandatory provision.

Amendments to the Law on Patents (the “Law”) entered into force on December 23, 2021, upon publication in the Official Gazette of RS no. 123/2021 as of December 15, 2021. The amendments were initially enacted for alignment of the Law with the EU regulations on intellectual property, as well as for elimination of certain deficiencies observed in its application.