On 18 October 2021, the Council of Ministers has published the draft Act on protection of persons reporting breaches of law. The Act is intended to implement Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law ("Directive 2019/1937") into the Polish legal system. The Act establishes rules and procedures for the protection of whistleblowers, i.e., persons who report information obtained in a work-related context about breaches of the European Union law.

Although from 1 November, the government regulation allows companies and businesses to make it obligatory for their employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, the questions about immunity still shall be avoided at a job interview. In addition, it will not necessarily be justified to obligate teleworkers to take up the vaccine.

On 21 September 2021, the Commission launched a public consultation on the revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation. The public consultation ends on 21 December 2021. Any interested party may submit comments and observations. The consultation concerns certain key topics such as access and affordability, solutions to address unmet medical needs, incentives for innovation, medicine shortages, environmental challenges and sustainability. The amendments of the general pharmaceuticals legislation may be however much wider in scope, in line with the strategic areas identified in the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, as part of which the public consultation is organized. Following the consultation process, the Commission will adopt a final legislative proposal, which is expected to be published by the fourth quarter of 2022.

Franchising may be an attractive proposition for many companies wishing to expand internationally. Take a look at this overview to discover the applicable franchise law in Poland, covering the essentials for franchisors, the relevant areas of law, selected aspects such as fees, and dispute resolution and applicable law.

The rights and obligations of virtual asset market participants, as well as the principles of state policy for virtual assets circulation recently came close to being set out in Ukrainian law. On September 8, 2021, the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada (the “Rada”) adopted the Law “On Virtual Assets” (the “Law”). The Law is designed to regulate legal relations arising in connection with the circulation of virtual assets in Ukraine.

The Hungarian judiciary system was facing with harsh critics in the past few years, especially in the field of digitalisation. However, the widespread of online meetings during the pandemic gave a boost to the digitalisation also in the courtroom. Even though the New Civil Procedure (entered into force 1 January 2018) and the New Criminal Procedure (entered into force 1 July 2018) provide for a long time the necessary institutional and technical conditions for online hearings, as well as for online witness testimonies, judges were reluctant to use them until last year, as it required more preparations and openness from their side.

Over the last decade, granting employees stock option rights for acquiring shares in the employer company has become a growing trend among companies operating in the technology sector, particularly in start-up companies. In this respect, companies favour "Employee Stock Option Plans" enabling employees to acquire a certain amount of shares in the company and conclude "Stock Option Agreements" with the employees for this purpose. In this article, the concept of stock options and various stock option plans will be discussed along with their implementation under Turkish law and in other jurisdictions.

A taxpayer cannot resort to the principle of in dubio pro tributario to select an interpretation of a provision of law that is more favourable when a different interpretation is more favourable for the vast majority of taxpayers.

Until November 2021, crowdfunding activities (investment-based or lending-based) have not benefited from a dedicated regime and may interfere with the EU banking and financial services rules, triggering ultimately significant risks to all parties involved.

From 2021, the rules on warranty for consumer durables (e.g. household appliances, kitchen appliances, gas appliances) have been comprehensively modernised. As a result of the changes, businesses must repair or replace defective products under warranty within a short period of time. In addition, the instrument for enforcing repair and replacement claims, i.e. the warranty certificate has also been affected by the amendments in September 2021. The Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM) created a warranty certificate template with a content agreed with trade associations to support the undertakings in their compliance.

On January 1, 2021, an amendment to the Czech Companies Act came into effect, which brought many minor and major changes to the current life of business companies in the Czech Republic.

On May 25, 2018, the personal data protection rules in the Czech Republic were substantially changed. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council – the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR – became directly applicable law in all EU Member States, after a two-year transition period. Thus, the principles of personal data protection in the Czech Republic, the rights, duties, and processing requirements are regulated primarily by the GDPR. 

The pandemic has transformed the Czech real estate market. While the residential and logistics real estate markets strengthened, the retail, tourism, and hotel sectors are among the worst affected. However, interest in investing in real estate has not waned as, in uncertain times, the purchase of real estate represents a safe place to park one’s funds and watch them appreciate. There has been no significant decline in property prices, even in the case of commercial real estate, as some investors had anticipated. The Czech market still lacks enough quality investment opportunities. The clear winner of this situation is the logistics segment. Our Prague office assisted in several transactions in the logistics segment, the largest being the purchase of 130 hectares of land intended for warehouse development, at one of the exits of the western D5 motorway. According to some real estate players, we can also expect increased interest in the industrial segment soon, including sale & leaseback transactions.

Framework Agreements (FAs) are like swimmers on a mixed medley relay. Each one does something different and it can be hard to understand what is going on. They are nevertheless used in many cross-border transactions in Russia, so here is an A-to-Z checklist to consider when negotiating FAs.

A carve-out of a business unit or a product portfolio may be required to optimize internal business processes or as part of a transaction on the sale of a business.

Despite the severe damage inflicted by COVID-19 on the Russian economy, the government and businesses have agreed that the local IT sector needs state incentives and support. Calls for accelerated development and state support for the local IT sector were among the main messages of several state agencies when the Russian president and government announced a series of tax benefits for the IT industry.

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference, taking place in November 2021, and the recently published EU proposals on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism have been at the top of the agenda, this summer, for the majority of Russian energy and other industrial corporations. The green agenda has never been so acute in Russia, the current level of business engagement in the preparations for negotiations on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement cannot compare to the one during the Kyoto Protocol period.

All countries have had to deal with the intensifying effects of climate change in recent years. As a direct response, we are in the process of moving toward a low-carbon future. The Paris Agreement and the EU’s Green Deal have already urged all sectors to take measures to reduce carbon emission levels, and the energy transition movement is rapidly growing. COVID-19 has also hastened this global movement.