Avellum acted as the Ukrainian legal counsel to the EBRD in connection with a senior secured loan of up to EUR 2.6 million to Negabarit-Service LLC, a Ukrainian company specializing in oversized and complex auto cargo transportation.

Schoenherr provided Austrian advice and Hengeler Mueller was lead counsel to private equity group Bain Capital on its sale of a 32% stake in the Wittur Group to an investment company of the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

DMS DeBenedetti Majewski Szczesniak has advised Vienna Insurance Group AG on its acquisition of 100% of the shares in Gothear Towarzystwo Ubezpieczen S.A. from Germany's Gothaer Group.

Ellex Valiunas has advised Baltic Sea Properties on its 12-year lease of a 6500 square meter space in a logistics terminal to be built in Lithuania by the Oribalt Group.

Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised a syndicate of banks consisting of Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberosterreich AG, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, and UniCredit Bank Austria on financing and a consequent takeover of Waagner Biro Bridge Systems AG by a group of investors.

Jara Drapala & Partners has advised Hive, a new supplier of electric scooters, on its entry into the Polish market.

The Warsaw office of Greenberg Traurig has advised Madison International Realty on its indirect acquisition of a majority stake in Capital Park S.A., an investor in the ArtN complex in the Wola district of Warsaw.

Cobalt has helped Earthport Payment Services UAB obtain a payment institution license from the Bank of Lithuania.

Zivkovic Samardzic has achieved a victory for the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network and Stevan Dojcinovic, its editor in chief, Serbia's Court of Appeals.

Latvian lawyer Nauris Grigals has become a Partner at TGS Baltic in Riga.

Vienna's Herbst Kinsky has promoted Philipp Baubin and Stephan Lenzhofer to the firm's equity partnership.

Andersen Global has announced a collaboration agreement with Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii, a law firm with offices in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, and its tax arm, Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii Tax.

Squire Patton Boggs has promoted Czech dispute resolution specialists Eveli Lume and Maria Polakova to the firm's partnership.

Turkish lawyer Burcu Okyay has been appointed Partner at the Bener Law Office in Istanbul.

Ukrainian attorney Yevgen Solovyov has been promoted to partner at Ilyashev & Partners.

Former Yazici Legal Partners Gunes Yalcin and Omer Gokhan Ozmen have joined Akol Namli & Partners.

On January 25, 2018, CEE Legal Matters reported on the split of Polish powerhouse Kochanski Zieba & Partners into two new firms: Zieba & Partners and Kochanski & Partners. CEELM sat down with Zieba & Partners founders Rafal Zieba, Adam Piwakowski, and Przemyslaw Kordel to learn more about the new firm’s plans for the future. 

Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. has promoted Bilyana Angelova to Partner.

In the absence of an agreement between the EEA and the UK (no-deal Brexit), the UK becomes a „third country” as of 00.00 am CET on 30 March 2019. This means that the organisations should revise those of their processing activities, which imply transfer of personal data to the UK.

With a slight lag of two months, on 11 March, the Polish President signed the bill amending Intellectual Property Law ("IP Law") which is scheduled to enter into force one day following its publication. The broad changes were brought about by the implementation of the EU Trademark Directive 2015/2436 ((EU) Directive 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015 to approximate the laws of Member States regarding trademarks) (the "Directive").

According to the announcement of the state secretary for tax matters issued in February 2019, the Hungarian Ministry of Finance is planning to introduce a new system that prevents multinational companies to avoid tax burdens in Hungary.

The Hungarian Government submitted a bill to the Hungarian Parliament in February 2019. The goal of the new legislation is to amend more than 80 acts in order to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to experts, these amendments could bring an easier and more uniform application of the data protection laws.

On 13 February 2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a ruling in a Hungarian case concerning the application of the provisions on VAT. According to the VAT Directive, as a general rule, VAT is be payable by the person carrying out the taxable supply of goods or services. However, in specific cases the Member States may deviate from this provision and provide that the person liable for payment of VAT is the taxable person to whom the supplies are made.

Pursuant to the Turkish Data Protection Law which aims to provide data security, it has set some rights and obligations to specific subjects. Those subjects fall into three categories: data subject, data processor and data controller. Data subject expresses a real person whose data is processed; data controller is defined as the real or legal person that determines the objectives and tools of processing of the personal data, and is responsible for the establishment and management of a data recording system; data processor is defined as the real or legal entity that processes the personal data, with the authority bestowed by the data controller, and in the name of the data controller. Data Protection Law sets forth essential responsibilities for data controllers, as follows:

On 21 December 2018, Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) published its decision regarding the investigation conducted against TTNET A.Ş. (“TTNET”), the leading internet service provider in Turkey, which is vertically integrated with the incumbent wholesale broadband access provider, Turk Telekom. The decision comprises of TCA’s assessment as to whether TTNET had abused its dominant position, in violation of article 6 of the Law No. 4054 on Protection of Competition (“Competition Law”), via certain types of bundled sales of fixed broadband internet and pay TV services.

In order to create an integrated system for high volume public construction investments, the Hungarian Government has adopted a new legislation. From January 2019, high volume public construction investments reaching the estimated value of HUF 700 million must be executed by a state-owned company, i.e. the Investment Agency.

The concept of garden leave is not a familiar concept to Turkish labor law as the legislation does not regulate this concept explicitly. The employers however in practice might have the need to make use of this concept for various reasons. Below we first introduce the concept of garden leave in general and then examine this concept under Turkish labor law.