The Public Enterprise for State Roads of North Macedonia (“PESR”) published an invitation for prequalification (“Invitation for Prequalification”) for works for the construction of a 10.5 km long sub–section of the TEN-T Route 6 Motorway (“Project”).

On July 10, 2023, the Council of the European Union (“Council”) officially adopted the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries (“Regulation”). This Regulation covers the entire battery life cycle, from production to reuse and recycling, aiming explicitly at safety, sustainability, and enhancing competitiveness.

Whereas competition law regimes around the globe struggle to find the right enforcement tools in a fast changing world, leading some jurisdictions to introduce revolutionary and highly sophisticated new intervention powers for competition authorities, Hungary is to experiment a simpler approach: an “increase of the hammer’s size”.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), one of the EU’s latest state aid instruments, entered into force on January 12, 2023. Now, after six months, it starts to apply. This regulation establishes rules to govern foreign subsidies that could distort the EU’s internal market. It empowers the European Commission (“Commission”) to investigate financial contributions provided by non-EU countries to companies operating in the EU. If these contributions are found to be distortive subsidies, the Commission can enforce corrective measures to remedy these effects.

In one of our previous texts (available here) we wrote about the connection between the protection of competition and protection of personal data, namely whether competition authorities may consider infringements of personal data in their investigations.

In addition to the modernisation of corporate governance in joint stock companies (“JSCs”), the new version of the Law of Ukraine “On Joint Stock Companies” (“Law”) introduces partial amendments concerning corporate governance in limited liability companies (“LLCs”).

Substantial changes have been introduced by Act XXXI of 2023 amending several acts on judicial matters. The new law has been passed in the beginning of June 2023, however most of its provisions enter into force at a later date.

On 30 June 2023, the web portal for freelancers operated by the Tax Administration was launched. 

On July 7, 2023, Value Added Tax ("VAT") rates have been significantly increased with the Amendment Decree ("Amendment Decree") to the Decree on Determination of Value Added Tax Rates Applicable to Goods and Services numbered 7346 ("Decree") published in the Official Gazette dated July 7, 2023 and numbered 32241.

On 28 April 2023 the European Commission ("Commission") put forth a proposal (Link) to revise Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (Payment Services Directive, "PSD2"), which was adopted on the EU level in 2015 and transposed into Austrian law by the Payment Services Act (Zahlungsdienstegesetz 2018 – ZaDiG 2018).

With the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework in place, personal data may again be transferred from the EU to any US-based commercial organization participating in the Framework free of further restrictions or authorizations.

After the roundtable discussion organized by the Lawyer's Academy of the Serbian Bar Association on the topic of SKY ECC communication as evidence in criminal proceedings on June 29, 2023, we summarize the key conclusions on an extremely relevant issue - SKY ECC hacking.

From 1 January 2024, new provisions of the act on general rules on electronic administration and trust services (“E-administration Act”) will enter into force which aim to resolve the legal uncertainty over the interpretation of the written form of private electronic documents.

June 2023 – In May 2023, the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority (the “DPA”) published two data breach notifications but did not publish decision.

The Hungarian Parliament adopted a new act on 13 June 2023 on the employment of third-country nationals. The purpose of the new regulations is to provide a transparent and unified background for the employment of guest workers coming to Hungary from outside the EU. The new act does not affect the employment of EU nationals and citizens of Ukraine and Serbia in Hungary.

On 2 May 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted Law “On Amendments to the Laws of Ukraine Regarding Improvements of Legal Regulation of Notarial and Registration Actions When Acquiring the Land Plots” No. 3065-IX (“Law”).

By Order no. 2.048/2022 amending accounting regulations applicable to economic operators (“the Order”), published in Official Gazette no. 878/07.09.2022, the Romanian authorities have transposed into national law the provisions of EU Directive 2021/2101 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2021 (“the EU Directive”) amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards the disclosure of income tax information by certain undertakings and branches.

The Regulation Amending the Electricity Market Capacity Mechanism Regulation and the Regulation Amending the Regulation on Renewable Energy Source Guarantee Certificate in Electricity Market published in the Official Gazette on 21 May 2021, introduced significant changes to the capacity mechanism and renewable energy resource guarantee certificate (“YEK-G“) applications.