Croatian employers have until the end of this year to partially comply with the recently enacted Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers (Zakon o zaštiti prijavitelja nepravilnosti; "Whistleblower Protection Act"), with which they must come into full compliance by March 2020. The Whistleblower Protection Act defines who will be deemed a whistleblower and enjoy protection for whistleblowing. In contrast, the current whistleblower provisions are scattered throughout a number of laws, such as the Criminal Code, the Trade Act, the Employment Act and others. Consequently, research conducted in 2017 has shown that around 60 % of Croatian examinees do not know how to report corruption.

Schoenherr has advised Toyota Motor Europe on the acquisition of Austrian marketing and sales company Toyota Frey Austria from the Frey Holding GmbH. Schindler Attorneys advised the sellers on the deal.

Karanovic & Partners has advised the Czech Republic's PPF Group on its acquisition of Telenor Banka, the first fully mobile and online bank operating in Serbia, from Norwegian mobile operator Telenor. Schoenherr and Latham & Watkins advised the sellers.

Baker McKenzie, ODI Law, Simkins, Covington & Burling, and Van Bael & Bellis have advised MHP SE on the acquisition of 90.68% of the issued capital of Perutnina Ptuj, d.d. CMS London advised ING, MHP’s financial partner.

Schoenherr has advised the Styrian association Styria Vitalis on the registration of its quality seal "Grüner Teller", which the firm claims is "Austria's first registered certification mark."

Schoenherr has appointed Bucharest Managing Partner Sebastian Gutiu and Partner Matei Florea firm-wide heads for Real Estate and Banking, Finance & Capital Markets, respectively.

Following some other European stock exchanges, the Vienna Stock Exchange (VSE) announced today, 22 February 2019, that it will no longer require issuers, the shares of which are admitted to trading on its regulated market, to publish quarterly reports.

Adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (EU) 2016/679 ("GDPR"), applicable as of 25 May 2018, marked a watershed in the regulation of personal data protection and the rights of persons whose data is being processed, while also setting down penalties and making substantial progress in safeguarding the personal right to privacy.

The Vouchers Directive, which regulates the VAT treatment of vouchers across the EU Member States, was agreed upon by the Council of the EU in 2016, and caught the attention of Romanian authorities, tax advisors, and businesses at the end of 2017. Together with other Member States, Romania must design and enforce an appropriate legal framework to ensure the application of the Directive starting in 2019.

On October 29, 2018, leading Austrian law firms Dorda, Eisenberger & Herzog, Herbst Kinsky, PHH, Schoenherr, SCWP Schindhelm, and Wolf Theiss announced their joint launch of the “Legal Tech Hub Vienna”: a non-profit forum for LegalTech companies, start-ups, and other legal market participants to identify innovation potential and work together to implement technological tools appearing ever-more-rapidly on the legal market.

Of the five types of corporation that may be established under Romanian law, joint stock and limited liability companies continue to be the most common. Recent statistics show that almost 1 million companies are active in Romania, of which approximately 800,000 are limited liability or joint stock companies. Further, the number of limited liability companies is reportedly double that of joint stock companies.

Schoenherr Warsaw has taken a team of three arbitration and litigation lawyers led by Partner Marcin Aslanowicz from Wolf Theiss.

Neighbours and communities don't like it, but apartment owners love it, because they can multiply their income. Short-term rental to tourists or businesspeople who stay for just a few weeks is very controversial. Both courts as well as the legislative bodies of the Austrian provinces have found ways to restrict it.

Gudrun Stangl has been promoted to Equity Partner and Arabella Eichinger has been promoted to Contract Partner at Schoenherr in Austria.

Schoenherr has established a dedicated, firm-wide Technology & Digitalization group, headed by Partner Thomas Kulnigg.

This overview aims to highlight selected potential Polish law issues related to liability for damages caused by machine learning algorithms (MLA) which an entrepreneur operating, buying or selling a business based on MLA may face and should consider. Needless to say, the civil law liability touched upon here is not the only liability regime which should be borne in mind. For the sake of clarity, however, matters related to specific sector regulation (e.g. for medical devices), intellectual property rights, GDPR as well as criminal liability are not addressed below, although they are equally important for MLA-based business.

In Hungary, as is the case in other EU countries, recent economic growth has been accompanied by a labour shortage. This is largely due to Hungarian workers emigrating to other EU countries in search of higher wages and better living standards. According to statistics, approximately 5% of the country's working-age population has emigrated to other EU countries in recent years.

On 1 December 2018 the new Insurance Distribution Act (the "Act") became effective in the Czech Republic. It replaces the still effective Act No. 38/2004 Coll., on Insurance Intermediaries and Loss Adjusters, as amended ("IILA"), and implements the plan envisaged by the European Parliament and the Council (EU) Directive 2016/97 on insurance distribution (revised version) ("IDD"), even if a little later than anticipated.