In August 2021, the Czech Supreme Court issued a ruling in which it found a provider of a file-sharing service liable for infringement of Czech laws against unfair competition. The decision takes a somewhat unorthodox approach to unfair competition, as it recognizes that particular business models benefitting from “free riding” may in themselves constitute an unlawful practice. For a European audience, it may also be interesting to learn how the court disapplied the safe harbor liability exception for hosting services and how the CJEU’s case law influenced the judgment.

Petr Bratsky has joined Kinstellar’s Prague office as Head of the firm’s local TMT sector and service line.

DLA Piper has advised the Karlin Group on a joint residential investment in Prague with PPF Real Estate. Kocian Solc Balastik advised PPF.

Generally, in the Czech Republic investment incentives are provided by the state to support businesses in regions other than Prague. They are approved by the government in cooperation with the respective ministries and processed by the state agency CzechInvest.

Dentons has advised the CPI Property Group on the EUR 1.25 billion bridge loan facility to help finance its takeover offer for all outstanding shares for S IMMO.

In the past twelve months, energy prices seem to have taken a life of their own. Their continued and, at times, shocking growth has raised concerns across the region and prompted differing responses and policy changes in each country. To get a more accurate picture of recent developments, we reached out to experts in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, and Turkey and asked them about the current energy prices, their impact on local economies, the drivers behind their growth, and whether any plans were in place to address the issue.

DLA Piper has advised the Aareal Bank on providing EUR 360 million senior facility for Pradera European Retail Parks’ international retail property portfolio financing.

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised Alkohol.cz on receiving an investment from the Rockaway Capital group.

Allen & Overy has advised Jan Drahota, Lubomir Kovarik, and Ceska Zbrojovka Partners on the sale of part of their shares in CZG through an accelerated book-building process.

CEE Legal Matters readers will likely be familiar with Patricia Gannon as one of the founders of Karanovic & Partners. Since her withdrawal from the firm (reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 21, 2020), Gannon ran her own "holistic strategic advisory business" (as reported on October 12, 2020) and, recently, she announced she is working on a new social media app for lawyers – Platforum 9. We caught up with her to learn more about her new project.

The Russian aggression in Ukraine, raging for more than two months now, has affected the Czech Republic to a significant extent, impacting the prices of energy across all sectors. Coupled with the rising levels of inflation, the country finds itself out of balance, according to Rowan Legal Partner Jan Frey, who says it is quite hard to predict what the rest of the year will bring.

Former Squire Patton Boggs Partner Hana Gawlasova has joined Deloitte Legal as a Partner and Head of the firm's Digital and TMT team in the Czech Republic.

Former Deloitte Partner Ivan Telecky has rejoined Allen & Overy in Prague as Counsel.

On February 25, 2022, CEE Legal Matters reported that Clifford Chance had advised Commerz Real on its sale of Charles Square Center to a closed-end European real estate fund represented by KGAL Investment Management. CEE In-House Matters spoke with Dirk Schilo, Senior Legal Counsel at Commerz Real to learn more about the deal.

On March 30, 2022, Dentons announced that KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners’ acquisition of CyrusOne (reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 22, 2021) has now closed.

Denisa Novakova has been appointed as Head of Real Estate in the Prague team of CEE Attorneys.

The current primary focus of the Czech government is to help Ukrainian refugees and deal with the various issues surrounding sanctions against Russia, according to Kinstellar Partner Jan Juroska.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Vladimir Rangeloff of Kambourov & Partners to learn what they are looking forward to the most.