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Obligatory Activation of Electronic Mailboxes Postponed to July 2017

Obligatory Activation of Electronic Mailboxes Postponed to July 2017

Slovakia
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On 7 December 2016 the Slovak legislator adopted in a shortened legislative procedure the amendment to the Slovak E-Government Act (Zakon c. 305/2013 Z. z. o elektronickej podobe vykonu posobnosti organov verejnej mocia o zmene a doplneni niektorych zakonov v zneni neskorsich predpisov).

Pursuant to the amendment act the initial term for the obligatory activation of electronic mailboxes by Slovak legal entities registered with the Slovak Trade Registry (Obchodny register Slovenskej republiky) was postponed from 1 January 2017 to 1 July 2017. Accordingly, companies that have not activated yet their electronic mailbox for the purpose of official correspondence with Slovak public authorities (i.e. courts, authorities, ministries, agencies, etc.) will have time to do so until 1 July 2017.

The reason for the extension of the initial term for the activation of the electronic mailbox was that as of the end of 2016 electronic mailboxes had been activated by only a small number of Slovak companies. This fact led to the initiative in the Slovak government to propose said amendment to the Slovak E-Government Act.

The amendment act further introduces the so called "10-days rule" which stipulates that the owner of the electronic mailbox shall have ten days upon the initial registration into the electronic mailbox to take any necessary technical steps to ensure that messages will be effectively received in electronic form into the mailbox. After ten days from the initial registration the activation of the electronic mailbox will be deemed as completed and the Slovak public authorities may validly send official correspondence in electronic form into the electronic mailbox of the respective company.

By Jasna Zwitter-Tehovnik, Partner, and Natalia Feriencikova, Associate, DLA Piper Vienna

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