Starting May 25, 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect. Although it will apply directly in all EU Member States, Member States have the option to add additional regulations to certain specific situations. This article sets out a brief overview of the key provisions of the draft of the relevant Croatian law, which is in procedure before the Croatian Parliament at the moment of writing of this article.

Fighting against cartels has always been crucial to protecting fair competition and fostering economic growth. A proper leniency program is an important instrument for the competition authorities, allowing them to uncover and penalize such anticompetitive conduct.

The GDPR, which entered into force in the EU on May 25, 2018, will also have implications for Macedonia-based companies.

With less than a month before it eventually rolls out across the EU, the GDPR is still treated by many businesses as a complicated piece of legislation triggering serious debate between professionals and regulators and imposing a heavy compliance burden for large organizations. However, the GDPR implementation date – May 25, 2018 – should be looked at more as a starting line rather than a hard deadline, providing organizations with the opportunity to map – through their search to identify any personal data processing – both their entire corporate life and their day-to-day operations.

As Serbia is gearing up for EU accession, harmonizing with EU legislation and business practices becomes not only mandatory, but also a market necessity. Although there are discrepancies between business practices in Serbia and in the EU, one thing seems to be unanimous: local businesses, just like their international counterparts, think ahead when it comes to securing their assets. This applies to every type of business, but it is prevailingly visible in local medium-sized to large businesses which predominantly handle and/or deal with IP portfolios. Nowadays, in the ever-evolving digital world, where almost information is at the reach of one’s hand – even to those located in remote corners of the world – attention and focus are being switched to ensuring the adequate protection of trade secrets. This process is happening in Serbia as well.

After years of anticipation, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force and took effect on May 25, 2018, bringing about several changes to Europe’s current data protection regime.

Without going into too much detail, having seen the recent turmoil regarding the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation and the fact that the subject has been more than widely debated, we wish to point out that, from our point of view, record keeping of data processing activities is a key aspect in a proper GDPR implementation scheme.

After Personal Data Protection Law number 6698 came into force (April 7, 2016) in Turkey, and following a two-year-transition period (which concluded on April 7, 2018), the compliance process has been initiated in regard to general principles and rules on processing of personal data.

According to experts, Ukraine ranks fourth in the world in export of IT-products; i.e., software. It is not a rare phenomenon for Western counter-parties buying software to encounter a low level of pre-sale clearance. In other words, the Ukrainian sellers are not always able to confirm their title rights to the software they dispose of, potentially exposing foreign buyers to the risk of IP-related claims of third parties.

While no more applications for Micro Projects (those below 0.5MW) can be submitted under Hungary’s very generous mandatory off-take system since the end of April 2018, the Government  seems to have acknowledged that the projects already licensed under the subsidy regime may not be physically implemented within the strict deadlines set forth in the original legislation. Therefore, it is now possible for entities that applied for licenses after January 1, 2016 to ask for a three- years extension to complete their projects without any sanction. This is good news for license-owners and potential investors, as they have a reasonable amount of time to manage the relatively burdensome permitting proceedings and can also secure project finance. This is also good news for the Hungarian state budget because the first heavy payments to the projects under the mandatory off-take system will be delayed by a few more years.

Based on the transparency requirements of the GDPR, companies must now provide more detailed information on data processing. The usual form of relaying this information to the public is through a privacy notice. Now that May 25, 2018 is fast approaching and companies are working towards GDPR compliance, such privacy notices must be finalized.

The GDPR comes into effect on May 25, 2018. Since data processing concerns a wide range of activities, very few companies or entrepreneurs will be unaffected. Numerous articles and discussions have been posted about the GDPR in the media, some of which contain false or misleading information and therefore give rise to concern, especially considering the possibility of high penalties. Failure to adopt national implementing legislation does not help the situation either. In this article we would like to highlight some of this misleading information and explain the inaccuracies.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is, according to the EU-hosted GDPR website, “the most important change in data privacy regulation in the past 20 years.” The Act, which was approved by the EU Parliament on April 14, 2016 and will become fully effective on May 25, 2018, was designed “to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy, and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”

Implementation of large-scale real estate development projects almost always requires the simultaneous development of new or upgrades to existing public infrastructure necessary for the unimpeded use of the main project. Back in the old days, real estate development projects suffered, from time to time, from slow public infrastructure development since the relevant public authorities either had no interest in or had no available funds to develop the missing infrastructure.

Public private partnerships and concessions are effective tools to allow governments to partner with the private sector to develop and finance key infrastructure projects. These forms of collaboration are particularly relevant in Russia, where infrastructure investment needs are estimated by the World Bank to be about USD 1 trillion.

In December 2017, CMS published the latest edition of its annual “Infrastructure Index” report, which compares the political, economic, and legal environments for investors in infrastructure in 40 countries and constitutes a guide to the world’s most attractive destinations for infrastructure investment. According to the report, the five most attractive destinations for infrastructure investment are the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

The new Lithuanian Concessions Law came into force on January 1, 2018. With the new legislation, Lithuania has adopted European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/23/EU on the award of Concession Contracts, which establishes a balanced and flexible legal framework for the award of concessions and ensures effective and non-discriminatory access to the market for all economic operators. The new Lithuanian legislation aims to ensure transparency and fair competition in the development of infrastructure and the provision of services of general economic interest, as well as the attraction of national and EU-wide private investors to the public sector.

The plans to regulate public-private partnerships have been in the program of the Montenegrin Government for at least ten years now. Despite its central importance to both the public and private sectors, a specific legislative and institutional framework in the area of PPPs is still not in place. Instead, PPPs are regulated by laws from several sectors and by the Law on Concessions. The main authoritative bodies in charge of implementing PPP projects are the Privatization and Capital Investment Council and the Concession Commission.