CEE Legal Matters
In-depth coverage of the news and newsmakers that shape Europe's emerging markets
TGS Baltic, working with Vinge, has advised Helix Kapital on the sale of its shares in the Spring Media Group to Two Circles. The transaction also involved a buyout of local minority shareholders in SIA 4.vara who were advised by TGS Baltic and CMS' Stockholm office. Sorainen and Latham & Watkins reportedly advised Two Circles.
DWF has advised Software Mind on its acquisition of Core3. Bakowski Legal Solutions advised the sellers, Dariusz Dudzinski, Pawel Ciach, Piotr Markiewicz, Michal Moldrzyk, and Iwo Malinowski.
On December 20, 2024, Hungary has enacted two new cybersecurity laws, namely the Act No. LXIX of 2024 on Hungary's Cybersecurity ("2024 Cybersecurity Act"), which replaces the former national implementation of the NIS2 Directive, and the Act No. LXXXIV of 2024 on the Resilience of Critical Entities (“The Act on the Resilience of Critical Entities”), re-implementing Directive (EU) 2022/2557 on the resilience of critical entities in Hungary.
With the Cybersecurity Act entering into force in February 2024, Croatia was, unexpectedly, one of the first EU member states to implement NIS2, and it seems this happened just in time. Throughout this year as well as in 2023, government and financial institutions, companies, and even airports and hospitals were targets of multiple cyberattacks. Unsurprisingly, these resulted not only in temporary loss of availability of crucial services but also in loss of data – at times even life-and-death patient data.
Six years after the introduction of the GDPR, many businesses still treat it as if it were a “new law,” a regulation to be addressed later, rather than a priority today. It took years for the GDPR and data protection in general to even make their way onto Q&A lists in legal due diligence, competing alongside other established legal risks when analyzing target companies.
Currently, the Croatian AML Act (Official Gazette no. 108/2007, 39/2019, 151/2022) uses the term “virtual assets,” while the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) (EU Regulation 2023/1114), along with subsequent Implementing Act for MiCA (Official Gazette no. 85/2024) adopted by Croatian Parliament in July 2024), uses the term “crypto-assets.” Clearly governing the same, the terms used are similar, but slight nuances persist in definitions. Yet, inconsistency of legal terms should be avoided to prevent misinterpretation and confusion in legal applications.
For years, Poland has held the unenviable position of leading the race in delays when implementing various EU laws, especially in the digital sector. This has resulted, and continues to result, in multimillion-euro fines that Poland is compelled to pay to the EU.
