Schoenherr has advised Ceres Pharma on the acquisition of the Hungarian pharmaceutical companies VitaPlus and Innopharm, including their Innopharm Austrian subsidiary.

Wolf Theiss has advised AMS-Osram on the implementation of the company's refinancing plan with a volume of approximately EUR 2.2 billion.

Brandl Talos has advised Pride Capital Partners on its acquisition of a minority stake in the Rubicon Group.

Schoenherr, working with Walder Wyss and the Law Office of Loren Richards, has advised Raiffeisen Bank International on its EUR 31 million project financing to borrower Energy Financing Team SE Bileca to develop a 60-megawatt solar power plant in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Squire Patton Boggs and 42Law have advised Inven Capital on co-leading the EUR 8.5 million series A investment round of Hydrogrid, alongside Karma Ventures. Cobalt advised Karma Ventures. Herbst Kinsky advised Hydrogrid.

The UK has not been a member of the European Union and thus of the comprehensive European framework for cross-border civil litigation since 1 January 2021. Within the EU, the Brussels I Recast-Regulation (Regulation [EU] 1215/2012) not only provides a set of common rules on the jurisdiction of the courts but also ensures rapid and simple recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters issued in the Member States. Under the Brussels I Regulation, judgments are enforceable without any declaration of enforceability. A judgment rendered in France or Romania can be enforced in Austria without much trouble and vice versa.

On 15 December 2023, Austria's National Council of the Parliament (lower house) adopted the Flexible Company Act (Flexible-Kapitalgesellschafts-Gesetz, FlexKapGG), which introduces a new company form, the "Flexible Company" (FlexCo) as of 1 January 2024.

Cerha Hempel, working with the Italian offices of K&L Gates, has advised the EBRD on the sale of a 15% stake in Erste Bank Hungary to the Erste Group Bank. Addleshaw Goddard reportedly advised the Erste Group Bank.

Former Wolf Theiss Partner Marcell Nemeth has joined DLA Piper’s Finance, Projects & Restructuring practice as a Partner in the firm's Vienna office.

Wolf Theiss, working with Ropes & Gray, has advised drug development contract research organization QPS Holdings on the full sale of its QPS Neuropharmacology business unit to Scantox. Dorda, working with Denmark's Accura, advised Scantox.

Binder Groesswang has advised fire, flame, and gas safety solution provider the Consilium Safety Group on its full acquisition of Radicos Technologies from the company's founders and financial investors.

With CMS’s recently published European M&A Outlook report taking the temperature of the M&A activity across the continent, CMS Romania Managing Partner Horea Popescu and CMS Vienna Partner Alexander Rakosi share their insights on M&A trends in the CEE region.

In our Looking In series, we talk to Partners from outside CEE who are keeping an eye on the region (and often pop up in our deal lists) to learn how they perceive CEE markets and their evolution. For this issue, we sat down with Reed Smith Partner Kevin-Paul Deveau.

The statutory right to vacation originally arose from the employer’s duty of care for its employees. The Austrian Vacation Act of 1976 is a manifestation of this duty of care. It provides for five – with some seniority six – weeks of vacation for each working year. The law also expressly states that vacation should be used up, if possible, by the end of the year in which it was accrued. However, the employer and employee must agree on the specific leave days. In general, this means that neither the employee can take off for vacation unilaterally, nor can the employer impose it. Therefore, if there is no agreement on the actual use of vacation, this leads to an accumulation of vacation days.

E+H, working alongside Latham & Watkins, has advised Carlyle investment firm on its majority investment in GBTEC Software and its affiliates.

CMS has advised Nordic private equity fund Alder Investment III on the acquisition of a majority stake in Austrian food industry optical sorting company Insort. Herbst Kinsky reportedly advised the sellers.

Baker McKenzie has successfully represented Google before the Court of Justice of the European Union in challenging the Austrian Communication Platforms Act, which it describes as "far-reaching content moderation legislation" aiming to regulate "large online platforms established in other EU member states."

Schoenherr has advised EHL Immobilien on the sale of the entire stake in EHL Immobilien Management to PMV Holding, a member of the IMV Immobilien Management Group.