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The new technologies all aim to make our lifes easier and we certainly all have already used the one or other PropTech application.

Not all applications succeed, but those who do, massively disrupt long-established businesses such as e.g. the hotel and tourism sector or the real estate agents-sector. Some react with legal arguments, others try – where possible – to integrate the new technologies in their business models.

Some other technologies are yet in the early stage of development. The blockchain technology, mainly known for the bitcoins, is currently tested to be used for the land register in Sweden, Georgia and the Ukraine. Blockchain is considered as secure technology and shall therefore ensure a secure process for real estate transactions and mortgage deeds in the future. In a survey of experts by the World Economic Forum in 2015, the majority estimated that 10% of the worlds’ GDP will be registered in a blockchain by the year 2025.

A holistic approach to blockchains, however, shows the massive impact this technology has on the environment – the technology consumes a lot of energy, the carbon footprint is enormous. This is where renewable energy comes into play, and some inventive entrepreneurs are already setting up eco-friendlier mining-businesses.

The challenges for the PropTech industry are hence manifold, from the existing legislations they have to adhere to, to politics, the interests of various stakeholders, and the gap between the possibilities and visions of the new technologies and the interests of many involved that may hamper new laws making PropTechs of the future possible.

Wolf Theiss is aware of the challenges of the real Estate and PropTech industry and held a widely acclaimed PropTech-breakfast in June of this year. Wolf Theiss will also be present at the FuturePropTech Event, Europe’s largest event for innovation and digitization of the real estate industry on 9 November 2017 in Vienna: http://www.futureproptech.at.
22 April 2020

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22 April 2020

The first action plan for the application of the GDPR has been published by the Romanian data protection authority

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22 April 2020

Amendments to EU council regulation on the EU trade mark enter into force on 1 October 2017

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Amendments to the Croatian foreigners act

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22 April 2020

Nullity of loan agreements concluded with foreign lenders in Croatia

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22 April 2020

Ukraine: Vertical block exemption regulation expected to be adopted

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22 April 2020

Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European parliament and of the council on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market

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22 April 2020

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Amendments to the Hungarian Competition Act from earlier this year concerned rules relating to merger control thresholds as well as to conducting of merger control reviews....

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22 April 2020

Watch out: Fee to be introduced for the registration and annual maintenance of “.ro” domains

In December 2016, the Board of Directors of the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics ("ICI") issued a decision for the introduction, (as of July 1st 2017), of a fee for registering ".ro" domains and for the annual maintenance of such domains (the "Decision"). The Decision was in line with the general approach of the European Member States, where such fees have already been implemented....

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22 April 2020

Individual exemptions and selective distribution systems – The dos and don’ts in Serbia

Serbian competition rules dealing with agreements restricting competition are largely taken from and harmonized with EU competition rules. There is, however, one difference: in Serbia, if a restrictive agreement does not benefit from the local block exemption regulation ("BER"), the parties cannot self-assess whether their agreement meets the criteria comparable to those stipulated in Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Instead, the parties must notify the agreement to the Serbian Commission for the Protection of Competition ("Commission") and request that it is individually exempted from the legal restriction....

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22 April 2020

Central transportation port – Huge investment in the middle of Poland

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