Natural or legal persons directly or indirectly acquiring shares granting more than 33% of the vot-ing rights in a Romanian listed company are required to make a bid as a means of protecting the company’s minority shareholders. Under the European legal framework, the offeror must address that bid to all minority shareholders, offering to purchase all their holdings at an equitable price.

Wolf Theiss worked with lead counsel Clifford Chance in advising the Blackstone Group on its EUR 1.64 billion acquisition of CRH's European distribution business. Slaughter and May advised CRH on the transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approval.

The Constitutional Tribunal recently analysed regulations regarding dawn raids carried out by the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) and ruled that the respective law is not in line with the Constitution insofar as it excludes the possibility to challenge rulings allowing searches to be conducted.

Schoenherr has advised Coeo Inkasso GmbH on its June 17, 2019 acquisition of 100% of the shares of KNP Financial Services GmbH from founders Anton Moser and Wolfgang Hetlinger, who were reportedly advised by Hasch & Partner.

Members of the BPV Legal in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have provided local counsel in those jurisdictions to Dutch property managers MVGM on its takeover of the property management division of the Jones Lang LaSalle Group in Continental Europe. The Hague office of the Dutch law firm Barents Krans acted as lead counsel to MVGM, and Watson, Farley & Williams was lead counsel to JLL, working with local counsel from Schoenherr in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania.

RTPR Allen & Overy and Schoenherr Romania have successfully represented Romanian electrical company Societatea Energetica Electrica S.A. in a EUR 800 million dispute against the Romanian Management Company for Ownership in Energy.

I. Introduction: Drones (coll.; "unmanned aircraft [systems or vehicles]" in technical terms) are aircraft operated with no pilot on board. Once mainly developed and used for military purposes, drones are increasingly influencing our everyday lives. Drones vary greatly in size, performance and type. Civil drones are operated for risky flights to accident areas (e.g. firefighting, overflying flooded areas, finding missing persons3), can assist authorities4 (e.g. border control), deliver commercial services such as infrastructure (e.g. bridges, railways, nuclear plants) maintenance and monitoring, aerial mapping (e.g. for construction planning, insurance, urban planning), filming6 (see "Can flying photo drones be shot down?"), farming7, forestry, fisheries or may deliver packages. In fact, taxi drones may turn out to be a landmark in drone operations (see "Taxi drone EHang 216 takes off in Austria"). Considering that unmanned aerial toys will increasingly impact the Single European sky airspace, proper harmonised rules on safe and secure drone operation within the EU and its internal (aviation) market are urgently needed. EU-wide harmonised rules on civil drones must take into account their great variety of use these days.

In February 2019 the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic submitted a bill that aims to provide whistleblowers credible tools to report illegal conduct in the workplace and protect them against potential reprisals. The bill also introduces new duties for many employers.

The EU Shareholder Rights Directive II (2017/828) (SRD II), amending Directive 2007/36/EC as regards the encouragement of long-term shareholder engagement, must be transposed into national law by 10 June 2019.

The CRISPR method: Genome editing designates new methods that allow targeted interventions to be carried out in the genetic material, the genome of a cell. The CRISPR/Cas method is a molecular biological method to specifically cut and modify DNA ("genome editing" or "gene scissors"). Genes can be inserted with the CRISPR/Cas9 method or used only remotely or switched off. This method was discovered in 2012, originally as a defence mechanism of bacteria against viruses. Soon, researchers around the world were using it to modify the DNA of a wide variety of organisms.

Schoenherr, working with SafeReach, has launched the Dawn Raid App – a legal tech solution for clients to ensure a controlled process in the event of a dawn raid.

Schoenherr has advised Tele2 AB on the EUR 220 million sale of its Croatian business, Tele2 Croatia, to the United Group. Kirkland & Ellis and Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic represented the BC Partners-backed United Group.

Incorrect land register entries may trigger public liability. But in a recent decision the Austrian Supreme Court (1 Ob 198/18a) held that incorrect land register entries can only constitute public liability claims for a certain group of people.

Schoenherr has announced that it will open a new office in Linz this autumn.

The Prague office of Schoenherr has advised Portiva Private Equity a.s. on the acquisition of a 50% share in EAG SE, which, through its Carvagocom s.r.o. subsidiary, will operate an innovative platform to be used for buying, selling, and renting cars and other related services. Kinstellar advised EAG in the deal.

PRK Partners has advised the Remy Cointreau Group on Czech and Slovak aspects of the sale of its Czech and Slovak distribution companies to Germany's Mast-Jagermeister. Germany's Luther law firm provided advice on German elements of the deal, which closed in April 2019. while Germany's Gutt Olk Feldhaus and Schoenherr in the Czech Republic and Slovakia reportedly advised Mast-Jagermeister. Financial details were not disclosed.

In a recent decision (Ra 2015/11/0113), the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) inter alia addressed the question whether the application of stem cell therapy violates Section 49 of the Austrian Act on the Medical Profession (Ärztegesetz, ArzteG), which requires physicians to treat patients "… in accordance with state of the art medical science and practice" and to at all times act in the best interest of the patients.

Schoenherr has advised South Korean investment fund KTB Investment & Securities and KTB Asset Management on the indirect acquisition of the T-Center, an office building in Vienna, from GENO Saturn Tower/T-Center Immobilienbeteiligungsholding GmbH & Co.OG and BEGO - ZWP GmbH. The sellers were advised by DSC Doralt Seist Csoklich Rechtsanwalte.