Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has been extremely challenging for organizations worldwide, both experienced and start-ups. The new reality has also compelled a vast majority of entrepreneurs in Romania to quickly adapt to a new economic context – significantly impacting the data protection domain.

A shareholders’ agreement, also referred to as a stockholders’ agreement, is, as indicated in its title, an agreement concluded by and between the shareholders and, often, the company itself.

The modern mentality concerning the relationship between employers and employees has led to the creation of mechanisms aimed at increasing the loyalty of the latter. One such mechanism that has become very popular in recent years is the Stock Option Plan.

We are now one year on from the first lockdown, and although many worried in the early days of the pandemic that Romania’s court system might not be able to cope with the large number of insolvencies that were expected, in fact the highly-anticipated wave of restructurings is yet to happen, as the debt moratorium which was enacted and then extended and the availability of the state aid package as well as the generally supportive approach of the lenders have helped companies manage their debt service and need for liquidity.  While there is no shortage of funding, the uncertainty of the lockdown period and its impact on future developments have resulted in more amend-and-increase or amend-and-extend transactions, with borrowers adding to their existing lender groups rather than seeking a full refinancing. 

From an economic and social point of view, throughout Europe, the COVID-19 pandemic period could be summarized in two words: digitalization and flexibility. These words were also key to employment matters, with a tendency for both employers and employees to be more open to establishing cross-border employment relationships, switching to remote work performed from a different EU Member States or, in case of expatriates, returning to their country of origin while continuing to work remotely for the same employer.

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the “new normal” is as fluid and unexpected as ever. The aftermath of the health crisis and its economic impact has not matched the initial expectations for dispute resolution: the Romanian market has not been flooded with insolvencies and commercial disputes.

Some time ago, a merger control case I was working on, involving the gambling sector (among other things), raised an interesting problem regarding the role of competition law.

Navigating the maze of zoning, planning, and land-use-approval processes can result in significant delays and escalating costs, which may spell the difference between a development project’s success and failure. With the economic growth of Romania over the last few years having generated investor interest in developing new real estate projects, particularly in well-established urban areas like the country’s capital, the authorities have repeatedly expanded and amended the country’s urban planning laws.

Economic, policy, and legislative factors have revived investors’ interest in Romania’s renewables sector over the last year. As the second-largest market in Central and Eastern Europe, Romania managed to attract about EUR 8 billion in renewables investments in the first wave from 2008-2016 – mainly in solar (over 1.5 GW) and wind (over 3 GW) – benefitting from the green certificate support scheme, although Romania reached its 2020 target for green energy and investments slowed down significantly over the last five years.

As a result of the increasing global trade, the international debt collection has become a more important issue nowadays. Given that debt collection proceedings vary across countries, this article explains the costs of initiating execution proceedings in Turkey.

The European Data Protection Supervisor has published a case-law digest on the transfer of personal data to third countries¹. The case-law digest aims to clarify the structure of the analysis carried out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in judgments concerning the transfer of personal data to third countries, in particular by highlighting the steps followed and the jurisprudential acquis in relevant case law.

On 15 July 2021, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted at its first reading the draft law introducing the new tax framework for the gaming industry (No. 2713-д). This is one of the key steps towards the full-fledged relaunch of Ukraine’s gaming market following its ban in 2009.

Release is one of the primary resolutions the shareholders can adopt regarding board of directors [“Board”] members. With release, the general assembly approves the transactions carried out by the Board members during the relevant fiscal year in terms of their economic and legal consequences. Hence, the corporation loses the right of action upon release. As such, the release resolution is considered to be a “negative acknowledgement of debt” and therefore removes any debt.

On 21 July 2021, Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Laws of Ukraine on Stimulating De-Shadowing of Income and Improving Tax Culture of Citizens by Introducing One-Time (Special) Voluntary Disclosure by Individuals of Their Assets and Payment to Budget of One-Time Duty” No. 1539-IX, dated 15 June 2021 (“Tax Amnesty Law”), entered into force.

The first part of July 2021 marks an important step at the level of the EU in its road towards the European Green Deal objectives. On July 14, 2021, the European Commission (EC) announced the rather complex set of reforms under the Fit for 55 package. Only a week before, the EC issued the Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy setting forth the main steps going forward towards placing ESG-disclosures and sustainability matters at the heart of financing system and economy in the EU.

On July 14, 2021, the Law No.7332 Amending the Animal Protection Law and Turkish Penal Law [“Amendment Law”] was published in the Official Gazette, and accordingly, the following significant amendments have been introduced to the Animal Protection Law No. 5199 [“APL”].

The Law on Electronic Invoicing entered into force on 7 May 2021 (“Official Gazette of the RS“, no. 44/2021). It obliges public and business entities to use the system of electronic invoices for issuing, sending, receiving and storing electronic invoices. On July 9 2021, the government adopted a set of bylaws necessary to implement the law.

The European Commission has issued a decision finding that Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche colluded in an agreement to infringe EU competition rules and fining them a total of €875 million.