Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice ("CJEU") has thrown out an appeal by Nestlé, which argued that it owns the shape of its famous treat KitKat. Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, has spent more than a decade fighting to trademark the four-fingered wafer shape. However, EJC's most recent ruling could bring an end to the snack's protected European status ...
Over the years, Montenegro invested significant efforts in the development of the tourism industry, and one could say that it is steadily becoming a go-to destination for those seeking an ultimate luxury Riviera lifestyle. The recent steps taken by Montenegrin legislators show that international trends are well received and recognized by local authorities, this time through the implementation of a new hospitality model – the mixed-use hotel ...
In light of the new EU data protection scheme, shaped by the GDPR, Serbia has enacted a new Data Protection Law earlier this year, with its' applicability postponed for 21 August 2019. The new law was long-awaited: it has been 10 years since the existing law was passed, which was even at that moment already outdated (e.g. it recognized only consent in the written form and almost completely restricted data transfers to non-European countries) ...
The US tech giant, Google is fined EUR 50 million by France's data protection regulator, CNIL, for failing to comply with its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) obligations. This is the biggest GDPR fine yet to be issued by a European regulator and the first time that one of the tech giants has been found in breach with the new regulations that came into force in May 2017 ...
As of 31 December 2018, the Central Registry of Ultimate Beneficial Owners was established within the Serbian Business Registers Agency (the “Registry”), in line with the Law on Ultimate Beneficial Owners (“Official Gazette of the RoS no. 41/2018). In addition, the Ministry of Economy issued guidelines which provide more information on the implementation of certain aspects of this Law (the “Guidelines”) ...
This article was written by Igor Angelovski and was originally published in Issue 6.2 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. “If you are a company conducting business in the automotive industry with intentions of expanding on the European market, where do you look? The answer may be the Central European country of Slovenia ...
This article is written byMarko Ketlerand originally published in Issue 6.4 of theCEE Legal Matters Magazine. After a few troublesome years during the global financial crisis, it seems like Slovenia is on a positive economic route again. On December 14, 2018, S&P Global Ratings affirmed an “A+/A-1” credit rating for Slovenia with a positive outlook ...
The Government of North Macedonia announced an open call for awarding a contract for the use of a feed-in premium for electricity produced in photovoltaic power plants (“PVPPs”) on state land in North Macedonia, with total installed capacity of 35 MW. Two locations are envisaged for construction of the PVPPs – Azambegovo (Sveti Nikole) and Manastirec (Makedonski Brod) ...
The European Commission consistently emphasises the citizens’ rights and status in its hard Brexit preparations and contingency works. It appealed to EU Member Stats to take a generous approach towards the rights of UK citizens in the EU, given that the UK reciprocates such an approach ...
The current COVID-19outbreak and severe and numerous preventive and restrictive measures governments are continually introducing are first and foremost a global health concern. However, this situation has already caused significant distortions to businesses and their ability to perform their contractual obligations. The question of all questions seems to be if the COVID-19 pandemic is aforce majeureor not ...
Due to the developments regarding the outbreak of COVID-19 and the declaration of a state of emergency in Serbia, the National Bank of Serbia (“NBS”) undertook emergency measures to facilitate the position of citizens and businesses in servicing debts ...
The Republic of Serbia has officially closed its border crossings for passengers in road, rail, air and water traffic at 8.00 a.m. on 20 March 2020. The passing of humanitarian aid and crossings of national importance that are approved by the competent authority are still allowed. International passenger traffic to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport has been suspended in accordance with the Government of Serbia’s decision on 19 March 2020 from 12.00 p.m. onwards ...
The Government announced on 1 April 2020 its proposal of a Program of economic measures to reduce the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an attempt to support the economy of Serbia, split into four categories ...
The Government of Serbia adoptedthe Regulation on Fiscal Benefits and Direct Aid to Private Sector Entities and Financial Aid to Citizens to Mitigate the Economic Impact ofCOVID-19 (“Regulation”) on 10 April 2020, ten days after the announcement of the proposalof the Program of economic measures aimedat reducing the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Regulation provides tax benefits and direct payments to private sector companies ...
Following the announcement of economic measures aimed towards responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Serbian Government issued two regulations on 10 April 2020 that determine the conditions and criteria for compliance of the state aid (i) for remedying the negative effects caused byCOVID-19 and (ii) for remedying a serious disturbance in the economy caused byCOVID-19, whereas both regulations will be valid until 1 July 2021 ...
The Government of Serbia adopted the Regulation on the Procedure for Issuance of Debt Securities (“Regulation”). This is one of the economic measures presented to reduce the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an attempt to support the economy of Serbia. The Regulation entered into the force on 10 April 2020 ...
As part of a package of economic measures worth EUR 5.1 billion, the Serbian Government adopted a decree on 16 April 2020 establishing a guarantee scheme for loans to be provided by local banks to businesses to reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (the “COVID-19 Guarantee Scheme”) ...
This Article was originally published in Issue 7.5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. Companies around the globe are having to make urgent decisions to keep their employees safe and ensure business continuity in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to fulfil these goals, companies need to find the right balance between providing a safe working environment and respecting their employees’ privacy, which can prove to be quite difficult in practice ...
