This article provides a brief review of the case law regarding the abuse of a position or trust in the business activity of a single-member limited liability company (LLC) in Slovenia, which is incriminated under Article 240 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Slovenia (CC).

Sanctions are currently relevant as a foreign policy tool and as an institution of law. For Latvia, as a border state with Russia and Belarus, the monitoring and enforcement of restrictions imposed by the sanctions are particularly relevant.

The development of the regulation on whistleblower protection in Lithuania started prior to the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 (Directive) coming into force. The first edition of the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers of the Republic of Lithuania (the Law) was passed by the parliament on November 28, 2017, set to enter into force on January 1, 2019. This took place mainly because of OECD insistence on the adoption of the Law prior to Lithuania’s accession to the OECD.

White-Collar Crime is commonly thought of as something only a natural person can be held liable for. Although this might be the case in some jurisdictions, it does not apply in Estonia. The Estonian legal system allows companies to be held criminally liable alongside or separately from their representatives.

Lithuania had the rules regarding FDI control in place before Regulation (EU) 2019/452 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union of March 19, 2019, was adopted. However, the regulation has contributed to a speedier increase in the awareness and development of FDI screening.

On May 1, 2023, the Foreign Investment Reliability Assessment Act, currently under adoption by the Estonian Parliament, will likely enter into force. Looking at the European Union as a whole, the push towards more supervision over foreign investors is not novel. What is new, is the Estonian approach to it and why this approach was taken. 

As of January 1, 2023, new rules regulating exclusion grounds will be applicable in Latvian procurements. This comes after the Latvian Competition Council discovered a bid-rigging scheme in the construction sector involving almost all of the largest Latvian construction companies. Notably, the period of exclusion will be extended, and the commencement date will be brought forward.

The obligation of e-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers to obtain licenses from the Ministry of Commerce was introduced to our legal system with the “Law Amending the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce" [available only in Turkish] published in the Official Gazette dated 7 July 2022, and thus has been amended by the Presidential Decree No. 6829 [available only in Turkish] published in the Official Gazette dated 23 February 2023 and numbered 32113.

According to Law no. 17/2014 on the regulation of the sale of agricultural land located outside a built-up area (Ro. extravilan), an 80% tax applies to the sale of such land if it is sold before the expiry of 8 years from its purchase.

Being declared insolvent for an unpaid invoice in Hungary seems to be an exaggeration, yet it is a possible outcome in liquidation proceedings. What kind of standard of proof is applied by judges? Does the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard, known in criminal proceedings applies? This article addresses this issue by analysing a recent decision of the Hungarian Supreme Court.

After the covid-19 pandemic, the EU economy is now being disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The rising energy prices and disrupted supply chains have resulted in a further increase in inflation. According to the Hungarian Central Statistics Office, average inflation in Hungary was 24.5% in December 2022, the highest in the European Union. However, inflation of food products was even higher, reaching a staggering 44.8% year-on-year price increase by December 2022. This number is almost three times higher than the EU average.

In recent years, online platforms have become crucial for individuals and small businesses, providing them with enhanced capabilities to interact, purchase and organize due to the data sharing among all market participants. However, many of these platforms have become quasi-monopolies and engage in anticompetitive conduct against their small-business counterparts, leading to calls for regulation from both theoreticians and EU institutions. The P2B Regulation aims to protect business users of online intermediation services by promoting fairness and transparency.

A two-and-a-half-year deadlock impeding the sale of Romanian farmland located outside buildable areas and acquired less than eight years ago seems to have been finally cleared. On 2 February 2023 a much-awaited normative act came into effect, filling a series of legislative gaps and allowing public notaries to authenticate sale agreements for certain types of farmland located outside buildable areas.

Law 43/2023 on the introduction of a tax amnesty for tax liabilities, including interest and penalties for late payment, calculated by the tax authorities following the reclassification of income from gift vouchers obtained by individuals from persons other than employers, from the category of income from other sources to the category of salary income, was published in the Official Gazette no. 163 on 24 February 2023.

Starting from 1 February of 2023, the Commercial Code of Estonia changed, and a new Commercial Register Act came into force.

Fashion house Christian Dior Couture (“Dior“) filed in 2021 to the EU Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO“) an application for registration of 3D shape of bag of this designer house – so-called Saddle bag as trademark within class 9 (mainly referring to eyeglass and phone cases) and class 18 (various handbags). EUIPO partly refused the application stating that the form of the bag lacked distinctiveness and that this bag is practically one of many in the world market.

The EU support for renewables, fostered from the outset by climate change and environmental/health as well as energy independence concerns, has prompted across the years a booming renewable business. Then the war in Ukraine broke out and the ensuing energy crisis raised a structural question mark on how EU could best react to these challenges and what role would the renewables play in the process.

This article is part of a series on developments in Austrian environment and climate change law in 2022 and, in particular, focuses on case law developments. For further details on legislative developments see, "Key developments in Austrian environment and climate change law in 2022: part one – legislation".