The new EU regulation on electronic evidence will enable law enforcement authorities from one EU member state to order service providers in other EU member states to surrender digital evidence. Providers who fail to comply within ten days or, in urgent cases, within eight hours, could face fines of up to two percent of their global group turnover.

Andrea Zinober has been appointed a Partner with BPV Huegel in Austria.

Former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Attorney at Law Christian Joellinger has joined E+H in Vienna as a Partner.

Although gender identity does not constitute sensitive data under the GDPR, its legal protection is nevertheless very robustly designed. Companies that choose to disregard it may face claims for damages and fines.

On January 4, 2024, Boyanov & Co announced that the EUR 1.4 billion sale of Cargo-Partner subsidiaries to Nippon Express (reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 17, 2023) had closed.

Former LGP Managing Partner Julia Andras has joined Schima Mayer Starlinger in Vienna as a Partner in the firm's Litigation department.

Schoenherr has advised the HID Global Corporation on its acquisition of all shares in ZeroSSL.

Veronika Derkovits has been promoted to a Junior Partner position with KWR Karasek Wietrzyk Rechtsanwaelte in Vienna.

Peter Machherndl has been appointed a Partner with Pitkowitz & Partners in Vienna.

Maria Grabner, Lukas Lanzerstorfer, and Nina Sterzl have been appointed as Partners with Vavrovsky Heine Marth in Vienna.

With artificial intelligence dominating tech conversations over the last year and with a draft AI Act being looked at by the EU, CMS Partners Dora Petranyi, Gabriela Staber, Klaus Pateter, and Olga Belyakova look at where AI is today and how European legislation might impact its future.

At the end of May 2023, the Austrian Ministry of Finance issued a new draft law. The Start-Up Promotion Act is intended to create a new regulation for start-up employee shareholdings that should apply to shares surrendered on or after January 1, 2024.

Binder Groesswang has advised Anadi Bank on transferring its Carinthian branches with around 42,000 retail customers, 250 SME customers, and a business volume of just under EUR 1.7 billion to Grawe Banking Group's Bank Burgenland. E+H advised Grawe.

Slovakia-headquartered GHS Legal has announced it is changing its name to FairSquare.

Binder Groesswang has advised Bosch Power Tools on the acquisition of 49% of the shares in FerRobotics Compliant Robot Technology from Ronald Naderer and Berndorf. Denkmair Hutterer Huettner Waldl reportedly advised the sellers.

Schoenherr has advised Kommunalkredit Austria on a EUR 25 million loan to the INVL Renewable Energy Fund I to finance the construction of solar power plants with a total capacity of 51 megawatts in Romania. Glodeanu & Partners advised the INVL fund. Sorainen reportedly advised Kommunalkredit as well.

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.