On 24 May 2021, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction (“Official Gazette of the RS”, No. 52/2021), which entered into force on 25 May 2021.

The standard approach in cases involving abuse of dominant position implies that the competition authority determines the market influence of the company due to which it can operate in the relevant market to a significant extent independently of other market participants and, provided that the company has a dominant position, whether its actions result in abuse of such position. The standard approach came naturally in markets that are geographically and economically limited. The core of the principle is that the public authority reacts ex-post (after the event) to abuses, by imposing the obligation to terminate anticompetitive practices or imposing penalties for prohibited behaviour.

The global crisis, which arose as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought light, among other things, to the weaknesses of the Serbian public health care system. The daily mass collection of a person’s data on health – which, according to the Serbian Data Protection Act, is considered particularly sensitive data – became a regular occurrence during the pandemic.

In the last decade, we have witnessed a significant transformation in the area of transportation services. Several new transportation service providers have entered the market, the offer has increased considerably, and accordingly, the price of the service has decreased. On every corner of the global metropolis, you can see a car of a different transportation company (Yandex, Uber, Cargo…) and customers are now able cheaper than ever move from point A to point B. Private transportation providers have higher profits than ever, and everyone seems to be pleased.

Should software be protected as a work of authorship or a patent?

As we mentioned in our previous article, the Law on Archive Materials and Archiving Activities (“Law“) started to apply as of 2 February 2021.

It is 2017 and you are a foreigner (non-resident of Serbia) aiming to purchase a share of a Serbian company. After you negotiate principal terms, conduct the due diligence, set final terms, and negotiate transaction documents, at the closing you transfer the purchase price in euros to the Buyer’s euro bank account in Serbia, and all is well. Now it is 2021, you are again in Serbia undertaking the same steps, but this time, you are in breach of the Foreign Exchange Act (“FX Act”). Why is that?

For our Checking In feature, we reach out to partners and heads of practice across CEE to learn how specific practice areas are faring in their jurisdictions. This time around we asked Data Protection experts: Overall, how compliant would you say economic agents are with relevant local regulations on data protection, and what are the main gaps that have yet to be addressed?

Growing industrial cannabis as a business activity in the Republic of Serbia is not a new phenomenon. The act that specifically regulates this area is the Law on Psychoactive Controlled Substances adopted in 2010 with its amendments in 2018 (“Law”). Besides the aforementioned Law, the Rulebook on Growing Industrial Cannabis adopted in 2013 (“Rulebook”) regulates it in more depth, meaning the business of growing industrial cannabis has been in the books for around a decade.

Ever since the United Kingdom (“UK”) announced its departure from the European Union (“EU”), there were a lot of speculations about which rights and obligations will remain applicable to its citizens upon (Br)exit. Naturally, as negotiations were ongoing since 2016 referendum, question of whether the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will remain applicable was still left open, until recently.

In this time of economic distress, many countries have suffered. Yet, reports Milos Gledovic, Partner at Samardzic, Oreski & Grbovic, Serbia has proven resilient. “The pandemic has not affected the number of transactions in our market, except in the industries directly affected by anti-COVID measures,” Gledovic says, describing the overall economic situation in Serbia as stable.

The Law on Archive Materials and Archiving Activities (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 6/2020, ) (“Law”) started to apply as of 2 February 2021, so after many years Serbia finally regulates the protection of archival material in one place and a comprehensive manner.

In December 2020, the French Data Protection Authority (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés or the “CNIL”) imposed significant fines of EUR 60 million for Google LLC and EUR 40 million for Google Ireland Limited, as well as of EUR 35 million for Amazon Europe Core.

Last month, one of the world’s largest messaging apps, WhatsApp, began notifying its users of the new Privacy Policy that would take effect as of 8 February 2021. The users were notified that they would no longer be able to use the app if they do not accept the new Privacy Policy, as of the effective date.

Samardzic, Oreski & Grbovic has helped Delta Motors and Delta Automoto ensure full compliance with the Serbian Data Protection Act as well as the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU.

When Google announced its $2.1 billion merger deal with the smartwatch and fitness-tracker company Fitbit last year (“Deal”), consumer advocacy and anti-trust regulators have expressed concerns over the proposed acquisition. As a consequence, in August last year the European Commission (“EC”) opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the said merger is in line with the EU Merger Regulation.

On 26 November 2020 the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs adopted the Rulebook on the unified request for approval, i.e. extension of temporary residence and issuance of a work permit to a foreigner (“Rulebook”), all in accordance with amendments to the Act on Foreigners from 2019 (“Act”).

Samardzic, Oreski, Grbovic has been appointed as AiCure’s data protection representative in Serbia by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.