In its latest decision of May 16, 2024 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reflected on the Hungarian foreign VAT refund regime. ECJ established once again that non-compliance with formal requirements should not prevent reimbursement of VAT provided that substantive requirements can and have been satisfied.

On June 24, 2024, the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers (the "Whistleblowers Act") was published in the Journal of Laws, which means that most of its provisions will come into force on September 25, 2024.

Poland has finally implemented the EU Whistleblowing Directive. The new law will enter into force on 25 September 2024, leaving little time to adapt to the new regulations. We highlight the key privacy implications of implementing the whistleblowing procedures in Poland and outline the actions organisations need to take in the upcoming weeks.

High-quality, diverse, and extensive datasets are fundamental for improving machine learning model performance, and web scraping helps gather the necessary data to develop more robust and generalizable models. Web scraping pose different legal challenges, such as data protection, copyright and contractual law related issues. Intellectual property concerns arise as website content, like text, images, and data, is often copyrighted, and scraping without the copyright owner’s permission may lead to infringement claims. Further to this, many websites prohibit scraping in their terms of service, and violating these terms can also result in legal action against the operators of web scrapers.

In the dynamic Central and Eastern European legal sector, the trend of law firms merging and consolidating has become increasingly prominent. This trend is driven by a quest for synergies, expanding the client base, achieving cost savings, and gaining a competitive edge in the war for talent.

Almost two years ago, I discussed in an article published in CEE Legal Matters the presence of “green” bonds and financings in Croatia. The thesis put forward in that article was focused on the necessity of companies and financial service providers to be more “green” in terms of the products they offer on the Croatian (capital) markets and goals on sustainability which should be accomplished.

Derivatives, repurchases, and securities lending transactions are often used by sophisticated financial institutions and large corporate entities in Bulgaria to manage their portfolios of investments, hedge against financial risks, or get short-term credit. Such products are predominantly offered on an OTC basis by foreign banks, with mainly the largest local banks having the know-how and resources to do the same.

In recent years, we have been seeing that real estate developers are starting to turn to debt capital markets to raise capital for their real estate development projects in Slovenia. When issuing bonds for real estate development projects, investors usually expect to have security on the real estate property that is being developed. Similar to other finance transactions, collateral can take various forms. This article examines the possibilities of establishing collateral on real estate property for bonds in Slovenia.

On January 25, 2024, the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo published a list of concept notes anticipated for drafting and adoption by the Kosovo Government in the present year. The concept note, a regulatory prerequisite to the enactment of legislation within a specified domain, specifies the objectives of prospective governmental policy and the optimal modalities for their implementation.

Albania, driven by its commitment to align with European Union standards, has embarked on a comprehensive journey to harmonize its financial legislation with EU directives, particularly in the realm of capital markets. At the forefront of this effort stands Law 56/2020 “On Collective Investment Undertakings” (Albanian CIU Law), a pivotal piece of legislation that encompasses the passporting of foreign investment funds into Albania. This landmark law, coupled with the recent enactment of Regulation no. 37 (Passporting Regulation) and Regulation no. 38 (Distribution Regulation) by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), lays down the groundwork for the processes of passporting and distribution within the Albanian financial landscape.

Due to the importance of disclosure of compliance with sustainability principles in evaluating the performance of companies, to ensure transparency, comparability, and reliability of the disclosures made within the scope of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations, regulations have been introduced in the Turkish legal system.

Investment funds in the Czech Republic are regulated by the Czech Investment Companies and Investment Funds Act (ZISIF) and by local implementing regulations (governmental decrees and decrees of the Czech National Bank – CNB).

The Baltic region, comprising Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, boasts an emerging public capital market facilitated by the unified securities trading platform – the Nasdaq Baltic Stock Exchange.

The economic sector of the Republic of Serbia, including the capital market, offers a telling reflection of the global market’s challenges and some regional specifics. Despite periods of uncertainty and stagnation, Serbia’s capital market maintains signs of vitality and potential for growth.

Creditors can collect their claims not only through court, but also through judicial or out-of-court settlement.

In a recent judgment, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) held that the claim "climate neutral" is ambiguous and often misleading unless the advertisement itself explains its specific meaning. This sets a trend for Austria, where courts have traditionally followed the standards set by the BGH in relation to environmental advertising when assessing such claims under unfair competition law. On an EU level, the restrictions regarding claims about greenhouse gas emissions are becoming even stricter, leaving advertisers with much to consider before making claims such as "climate neutral".

In a recent judicial case, the courts examined the legality of a termination notice delivered via postal service, where the core issue revolves around whether the employer fulfilled the legal requirement of notifying the employee of the termination of employment according to the Hungarian Labor Code.

Amidst the adoption of the Artificial Intelligence Act by the European Union Council, as the world’s first legislation setting a global standard for regulating artificial intelligence (“AI“), we are entering into the still unregulated territory of the relationship between patent law and AI.