On February 13, 2021, the Law of Ukraine No. 1116-IX “On State Support for Investment Projects with Significant Investments in Ukraine” dated December 17, 2020 (the “Law”) entered into force. This Law aims to attract high-value foreign investment to Ukraine and defines the principal rules and guarantees for the implementation of investment projects (the “investment project”).

The rules of obligatory invoice data supply were modified as of 4 January 2021 in a way that the data of such invoices, modifying or annulling invoices, which are subject to the invoicing requirements of the Hungarian VAT Act, must be supplied to the tax authority. As a result, the invoices issued for domestic or foreign natural persons, legal persons or organisations not subject to VAT as well as for not domestic persons subject to VAT are affected by the obligation of invoice data supply from 4 January 2021.

In the current context, marked by an ever-increasing impact of climate changes and under the umbrella of EU strategies involving soil protection-related issues (most notably the Soil Protection Strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 - a core part of the European Green Deal), the Romanian authorities have started to take steps in the direction of acknowledging, by means of a dedicated legal framework and mechanisms, the paramount importance of soil, for the purpose of ultimately supporting a sustainable development of this non-renewable natural resource.

Ex Works (EXW) is an international trade term and is one of the 11 current Incoterms Rules, a set of standardized international trade terms that are published by the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce). EXW means that the seller fulfils his obligation to deliver when he has made the goods available at his premises (i.e., factory, warehouse, etc.) to the buyer. The buyer bears all costs and risks involved in taking the goods from the seller's premises to the desired destination.

The High Court of Olomouc in its decision 5 Cmo 15/2020 among other things commented on when a member of the statutory body should be held liable for their obligations to a business corporation upon a business corporation’s bankruptcy within the meaning of Section 68 of Act N. 90/2012 Coll., to regulate commercial companies and cooperatives (Business Corporations Act, hereinafter referred to as “BCA”), which regulates “punitive liability”, the aim of which is to compensate the creditors of a business corporation for deterioration in the recoverability of claims which was caused by the corporation’s bankruptcy or by a member (or former member) not exercising their office with due care, because the member failed to take all necessary and reasonably foreseeable steps to prevent the bankruptcy (even though he or she knew that the business corporation was facing an imminent threat of bankruptcy, or should and could have known it).

Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established that for bad debt relief limitation period must begin to run not from the date of performance of the payment obligation initially provided for, but from the date on which the debt became definitively irrecoverable.

Solar power installed capacity in Romania is currently of almost 1400 MW, representing 6.8 % of the total installed capacity of the country. This capacity was largely installed in the period 2012 - 2016, during the first boom of renewable projects boosted by a generous support scheme. The pipeline of available projects was much bigger.

From January 1, 2021, Poland has introduced new transfer pricing regulations for transactions with entities registered in tax havens.

2021 could greatly simplify the parcelling of jointly owned arable land. Also, the new rules will settle the status of land registered in the name of unidentifiable owners. At the same time, a clearer and more transparent title structure could not only enhance farming efficiency but also boost greenfield investments.

Before the advent of cinematography, fictional characters were portrayed in literature and the traditional visual arts, such as painting and sculpture.

Ever since the United Kingdom (“UK”) announced its departure from the European Union (“EU”), there were a lot of speculations about which rights and obligations will remain applicable to its citizens upon (Br)exit. Naturally, as negotiations were ongoing since 2016 referendum, question of whether the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will remain applicable was still left open, until recently.

Electronic surveillance is regulated by Article 158d of the Rules of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter the “RoCP”), in the marginal section called “Surveillance of Persons and Items”. However, the term “electronic surveillance” itself is foreign to the RoCP, and this area is not regulated in sufficient detail on a legal level. At the same time, electronic surveillance is being used increasingly in practice and undoubtedly represents a significant intrusion into the privacy of the persons under surveillance.

Very similar to the Regulation on Fiscal Reliefs and Direct Payments and accompanying Conclusion from 2020 under which Serbian Government, among other forms of state aid, granted direct payments to commercial subjects in private sector (first for the trimester March-May 2020, and then additionally for the period June-July 2020), the new Regulation on Determining Programme of Direct Payments from the Budget of the Republic of Serbia to Commercial Subjects in Private Sector in order to Mitigate Economic Consequences caused by Epidemic of Covid 19 Disease caused by SARS COV-2 (the “Programme”) that came into force on 13 February 2021, grants commercial subjects with the right to obtain another cluster of direct payments, now for the accounting period February-April 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on employment in a number of sectors. At some point, an employer may decide to dismiss some or all its employees.

The beginning of 2021 seems to be under the auspices of numerous amendments incurred to the Law no. 227/2015 regarding the fiscal code (the “Fiscal Code”).

On 1 March 2021 a new Act on Labour Inspection, Employment Services and Grants will enter into force in Hungary, which replaces the "old" Act on Labour Inspection from 1996. While the new Act contains similar rules, there are some novelties too. Below we summarise the most important ones.

A New York court has recently ruled that the depiction of Humvee vehicles manufactured by AMG in Activision games is not an infringement of intellectual property and falls under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This may signify a radical change in game studios' approach to content licensing.

Law on Determining the Origin of Property and the Special Tax, the law which attracts a lot of public attention for two reasons, begins to apply on 12 March. General public attention is attracted given that this law was announced from time to time by various political parties which were in power during the last 20 years, while attention of competent public is attracted given the solutions provided for in the law.