Client Alerts

On 31 December 2018, the Central Register of Ultimate Beneficial Owners (“Central Register”) has been established with the Serbian Business Register Agency (“BRA”). Serbian companies, institutions, as well as branches and representative offices established by foreign investors in Serbia, are among the entities designated by the Serbian Law on Central Register as entities whose legal […]...

On 8th of January 2019 the Rules for Implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (in Bulgarian: Правилник за прилагане на Закона за мерките срещу изпирането на пари) have been published. This is the key piece of legislation that was missing from the framework introduced into the Bulgarian law with the transposition of 4th EU AML […]...

On 1 January 2019, important amendments of the Trade Unions Act came into force enabling individuals engaged under civil law contracts, in particular contractors or self-employed individuals, to set up or join trade unions, provided that such individuals do not employ other persons for the same kind of work they perform for the employer. Consequently, […]...

The Polish Parliament has adopted an act that became effective 1 January 2019 and shortens the retention period of human resource files and allows them to be stored in an electronic form. HOW LONG TO STORE EMPLOYMENT DOCUMENTATION? Former law required employers to store documentation related to an employee and the employment relationship (“employee documentation”) […]...

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, […]...

EU Directive 2016/1148 on Security of Network and Information Systems (the “NIS Directive”) regulates the main EU legislative framework, which aims to achieve a high common level of network and information systems security across the European Union. The NIS Directive applies to so-called Operators of Essential Services (“OESs”) acting in sectors that heavily rely on […]...

What does this mean for my business? The Czech Republic has implemented EU Trademark Directive No. 2015/2436 by way of amending the Czech Trademark Act No. 441/2003, effective as of 1 January 2019. The most important changes can be summarized as follows: Trademarks do not need to be capable of graphic representation in the trademark […]...

Substantive protection and enhanced procedural framework covering goods and services, business need to implement trade secrets strategies, including identification, protection measures and structure properly potential claims....

Destruction or anonymization of personal data – an appropriate way to comply with the right to erasure? The Austrian Data Protection Authority (DPA) has further consolidated its case law on the right to erasure. Following decisions on the relationship between erasure obligations and legal retention periods as well as on the storage of contact data […]...

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 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....