Client Alerts

The Romanian Competition Council is assessing, (at the request of the Romanian energy regulator ANRE): (i) the manner by which energy prices are established on the centralized market (OPCOM); (ii) OPCOM's activities generally in the month of January 2017; and (iii) two transactions between yet-unidentified parties in particular. The energy price for the day ahead market ("PZU") for the first week of January was between 184.7 lei / Mhw and 279.6 lei/Mhw, and thereafter rose to 509.2 lei Mhw on 28th of January, with certain suspicious transactions appearing to have been concluded at higher-than-normal prices....

The EU Regulation No 655/2014 of 15 May 2014 established a European Account Preservation Order (“EAPO”). The Regulation became applicable as of 18 January 2017 within the EU except for the United Kingdom and Denmark ....

The Constitutional Court of FBiH has found that the current order of settlement of workers' claims in bankruptcy proceedings is unconstitutional....

Almost two decades after being adopted following the model of the World Bank and UNCITRAL for non-possessory registered pledges, the Special Pledges Act (the "Act") was substantially amended at the end of 2016. Most of the amendments take immediate effect while those concerning the digitalization of the Central Register of Special Pledges (the "Register") will come into force on 1 September 2018....

The High Court of Justice of Romania established in Decision no.34/2016, published in the Official Monitor no.18 dated 9 January 2017, that a dismissal decision which an employer communicates by e-mail is validly communicated....

Advising in utilities projects that convert waste to energy is just one way that Wolf Theiss helps clients innovate and achieve added value. In advance of his guest presentation in February at the Energy from Waste (EfW) Conference 2017 at the Royal College of Physicians in London, Partner Bryan W. Jardine of Wolf Theiss Bucharest examines the current regulatory and incentive regimes that promote EfW projects in CEE/SEE and takes a look at the wide variation between the different countries....

The law on financial business activities in FBiH (law) aims at protecting and improving the position of small and medium-sized enterprises acting as creditors in financial transactions....

Ukrainian competition law currently lacks guidance on various legal questions, including vertical restraints; legal uncertainty exists even with regard to clauses regularly used in distribution agreements in other jurisdictions. It is therefore a welcome development that the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the "AMC") is working on a draft Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (the "Draft Regulation"). It is doing so in view of the requirements under the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union....

On 25 April 2017, important changes ("Amendments") to Austrian competition law entered into force - a number of changes will enter into force at different times....

By 2016, interest rates set by the European Central Bank reached historic lows. For this reason, a mortgage loan has become a more common way of financing the purchase of real estate. However, it is to be expected that, at some point, the current interest rates will be subject to alteration. Consequently, mortgage loan agreements usually contain a provision authorizing the bank to unilaterally increase the respective interest rate. Hence, it is particularly significant that one of the most frequently used banking products on the Slovak market is the mortgage with variable interest rates, with their possible fixation during the subsequent 3-5 year period....

OVERVIEW With the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 on the cross-border portability of online content services in the Union ("Portability-Regulation"), a major step towards abolishing geo-blocking in Europe was taken. The new Regulation will make online services even more attractive for consumers and together with the abolition of roaming charges which already entered into force on 15 June 2017, it is one of the objectives of the digital single market strategy to create a truly internal market for digital content and services....

The New Law Aims at Protecting Entities against the Negative Effects of Insolvency by their Majority Owners...