Client Alerts

The Bulgarian Council of Ministers adopts an amitious action plan for State Concessions 2019-2020, providing the launch of tenders for major ports and airports. In the context of the pending procedure for Concession of Sofia Airport, the Bulgarian Government affirmed its interest in developing public-private partnerships through concessions in the next couple of years. On […]...

On 03 December 2018, the Bulgarian Supreme Court of Cassation (“SCC”) published an interpretative judgement under case No. 1/2017 (the “Judgment”), where the Court provides long awaited guidance concerning insolvency proceedings. The Judgment addresses nine questions which were inconsistently resolved by lower courts. Bulgaria has been widely criticized for its inefficient and unreliable insolvency proceedings, […]...

On 12 March 2019, the Czech Republic approved a legislation incorporating the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation ’GDPR’ (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). The Chamber of Deputies approved the final version of the Data Processing Act repealing the previous Act No. 101/2000 Coll. (Personal Data Protection) that was partly inapplicable from the day the GDPR came into force (25 May 2018). Along with the Data Processing Act, minor changes to dozens of statutes concerning personal data processing were also passed....

The Act amending the Polish Accounting Act and the National Court Register Act ("Act") has introduced changes that significantly affect the obligations of entrepreneurs, particularly with regard to the filing of financial statements. In this edition of Wolf Theiss' newsletter, we highlight the most important of these changes and provide you with a practical guide for implementing the new rules in your company....

The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”), with its recent judgement, has set the course for the Croatian legislator attempting to intervene into existing contractual relationships. On 14 February 2019, the CJEU delivered a judgment concluding that a national law of an EU Member State cannot retroactively invalidate loan agreements that were deemed […]...

After extensive public consultations and parliamentary procedures, on 24 January 2019 the law implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC ("GDPR") into the Bulgarian Personal Data Protection Act ("Implementing Law") was officially adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament. Shortly after, on 4 February 2019, the Bulgarian President vetoed the Implementing Law due to concerns regarding the regulated data processing for journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression....

Wolf Theiss together with other qualified legal professionals from more than 30 European countries, contributed to the release of two new reports on GDPR for the CPC network, the largest European information platform explaining data protection laws....

On 3 April 2019, the President of Poland signed the Act of 21 February 2019 on amending certain acts in connection with ensuring the application of the GDPR (the "Act"). The Act amends over 150 sectoral acts, including the Tax Ordinance, the Public Procurement Law, the Investment Funds Act, the Payment Services Act and the Telecommunications Law. However, some of the most noticeable changes were introduced to the Labour Code and to the Banking Law....

On 15 March 2019, the Polish supervisory authority issued the first decision imposing an administrative fine in the amount of PLN 943,000 (approx. EUR 220,000) for the infringement of the information obligation stipulated in Article 14 of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (the "GDPR")....

On 26 March 2019, after three years of negotiation, the EU Parliament voted in favor of the full implementation of the draft Directive on the harmonization of copyright in the "Digital Single Market" (Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (COM(2016)0593 - C8-0383/2016 - 2016/0280(COD)). The aim of the Directive, which despite considerable concerns and Europe-wide protests was ultimately accepted by a narrow majority, is to ensure fairer remuneration to authors for the use of their works on the Internet, particularly on major platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Google-News....

Governmental Emergency Ordinance no. 26/2019 entered into force on 23 April 2019 bringing changes to the Romanian Labour Code. Concerned by the low and decreasing birth rate in Romania, and by the fact that on average only 5,000 in vitro fertilizations are performed annually, the Government decided to introduce a new type of paid leave […]...

New draft bill amending the Energy Act introduces a number of measures to further integrate RES Generation into the liberalised market and abolish Energy Export Fees On 22 March 2019, a new draft Bill for the amendment and supplementation of the Energy Act (“Bill”) was introduced by MPs from the governing political party. The Bill […]...