Wolf Theiss has advised the ALSO Group technology provider on its acquisition of Austrian Apple specialist the Target Group.

DLA Piper has advised Montana Aerospace on a EUR 450 million corporate financing from a syndicate including Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, HSBC Continental Europe, and UniCredit Bank Austria.

Kinstellar, working with Veil Jourde, has advised Jacquet Metals on its acquisition of several distribution companies from the Swiss Steel Group. Niederer Kraft Frey and Roedl & Partner reportedly advised the Swiss Steel Group.

Wolf Theiss has advised the Vienna Insurance Group on the increase of its stake in Hungarian holding company VIG Magyarorszag from 55% to 90%, by acquiring the extra stake from Hungarian state holding company Corvinus. PK & Partners reportedly advised Corvinus.

TGS Baltic has advised the Environmental Investment Center on developing a new support framework for the deployment of green hydrogen in the transport and industrial sectors in Estonia.

Weinhold Legal has advised WLSCo Investment and Lama Energy on the acquisition Fonergy. CHDO Advokati reportedly advised on the transaction as well.

Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised DEPA Commercial on its joint venture with GEK Terna and Gener 2 for the development of a thermal electricity production unit in Albania.

Wolf Theiss has advised Deutsche Hypo-NORD/LB Real Estate Finance on the financing for Rysy Properties Limited's EUR 46 million acquisition of the Mokotow Nova office building in Warsaw from CCP III Netherlands Holding.

Kyriakides Georgopoulos has advised the shareholders of Karydakis on the sale of the company to the Multi-Color Corporation.

Glatzova & Co has advised the Vitkovice foundries on the negotiation and preparation of the reorganization plan and the approval of the prepackaged reorganization, including the preparation of credit financing to ensure liquidity during insolvency proceedings.

Clifford Chance has advised Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka on the financing for the acquisition of Gastro-Menu Express by Oriens Holding. Rowan Legal reportedly advised Oriens.

Gessel has advised the Orthos Multidisciplinary Hospital – part of the Lux Med network – on the acquisition of a 1.1-hectare agricultural property bordering its premises.

Bulgaria's Dinova Rusev & Partners has recently announced the appointment of Ivelina Cherneva as the firm's new Managing Partner. Having been with the firm for the past 17 years, Cherneva succeeds founder Anelia Dinova in the MP role.

Act Legal Botezatu Estrade Partners has recently announced it welcomed a nine-person team from Consortium Legal – including Partners Stelian Mic, Barna Bolonyi, and Valeriu Timus – in "a friendly integration and a strategic step forward."

Deloitte Legal Hungary Head of Banking, Finance, and Capital Markets Linda Al Sallami has recently been appointed a Partner at the firm, effective September 1, 2023.

APTIQ Legal – the legal division of boutique consultancy APTIQ Global – has announced it is joining forces with the office of Bucharest lawyer Diana Dinu Dobrin and the Gal Ghilasi Procopciuc law firm in Brasov.

Bucharest-based lawyers Claudiu Damian and Costin Teodorovici have launched Whistle Up – a platform to support organizations impacted by the whistleblowing legislation in complying with the newly applicable legal framework.

Former Counsel Iryna Kobets has been appointed a Partner with the LCF Law Group in Kyiv, where she will continue to head the firm's Dispute Resolution practice.

Prague's Vaclav Zaloudek has become a Partner in the Global Commercial Litigation practice of White & Case, as part of a global promotion round that saw 42 new additions to the firm's partnership.

Tanja Glisic has joined TSG as Partner in Serbia.

Former Senior Associate Dragomir Stefanov was promoted to Partner at Hristov & Partners.

Former HKV Partner Lukas Michalik has opened up a new law firm in Slovakia: Ments. Joining Michalik at Ments is Partner Peter Makys, another former HKV lawyer.

TSALegal has opened its doors for business in Romania led by Vlad Toba and Traian Stefanescu.

Former Deloitte Legal Partner Olga Kaizar has joined PwC Legal as an Associate Partner in the Czech Republic.

Greenwashing is an umbrella term for misleading environmental claims. A claim is any promotional communication that can be communicated in advertisements, marketing materials, product manuals, prospectuses for investors, recruitments ads, annual reports, on packaging or brands themselves.

The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) is meant to make digital markets fairer and more competitive. How DMA does this is simple: the European Commission designates the “gatekeepers” (mostly the big tech companies), imposing on them new obligations such as mandatory interoperability of gatekeeper’s services and preventing the gatekeeper from favoring its products and services against similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper’s platform.

In the Official Gazette of RS no. 92/2023, dated October 27, 2023, amendments and supplements to the Law on Health Insurance were published, becoming effective on November 4, 2023 (“the Law“).

Due to Polish regulations on takeover offers for publicly traded companies, public to private transactions now carry a heavier risk of failure, understood as the inability to delist the company from the exchange. The bid for shares of TIM S.A., recently extended until 6 December 2023, may be a case in point. Any investor who gets involved in a tender for shares of a listed company needs to ponder the risk that, once the transaction is finalised, they will acquire a controlling stock in a listed company, which may still be subject to a restricted trading regime applicable to public companies for quite some time.

On October 26, 2023, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Right to a Fair Trial (hereafter referred to as the “Law"), which were published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 92/2023.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on Tobacco (“the Law”) was published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 92/2023 of October 27, 2023. The subject amendments entered into force on the eighth day upon the day of publishing i.e., on November 4, 2023, with several exceptions.

On August 25, 2023, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Personal Data Protection Strategy for the period 2023-2030 (“Strategy”).

On 16 November 2023, the Romanian Government approved the draft law aimed at ratifying the Unitary Patent Court Agreement (“UPCA”). Going forward, the draft law will be sent to the Romanian Parliament for its approval.

In recent years we have seen major infrastructure projects in the Eastern Balkans, ordinarily based on International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) standards, face significant delays and impediments due to complex decision-making processes.

From 1 January 2024, companies operating in Hungary will face new significant cyber security related obligations under the Hungarian legislation implementing the EU NIS2 Directive. In this short article, we describe which companies will be affected by the new regulation and what are the most important tasks in the new year.

Mandatory Deposit Refund System (DSR) comes into effect as of 1 January 2024 in Hungary. The newly introduced legislation clarifies the key points of the system and the specific obligation of the parties concerned.

We are facing a remarkable growth of blockchain technologies. One of the main functionalities of this technology is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of (personal) data. This article addresses possible advantages and risks for the protection of privacy and personal data posed by blockchain technologies and manners how to mitigate risks to protect the rights and freedoms of data subjects and other natural persons.