Karanovic & Partners has advised ElevenEs on partnering with EIT InnoEnergy to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery factory in Subotica, Serbia.

Karanovic & Partners has advised the Innovation Fund on launching the Katapult start-up accelerator in Serbia with support from the World Bank.

The Law on Prevention of Corruption (the “Law”), the key piece of Serbian anti-corruption legislation that started to apply in September 2020, recently received a short set of amendments.

On 6 September 2021, the Competition Commission (the “Commission”) has initiated a formal procedure against company MAT – Real Estate for potential gun-jumping. The transaction concerned involves the acquisition of company Radijator d.o.o., a distributor of plumbing and heating equipment.

The Parliament of Federation of BiH adopted the amendments of the Company Law of Federation of BiH and the amendments have been published and entered into force on 23 September 2021. The amendments of the Law are aimed at achieving the goal set in the Reform Agenda of Federation of BiH related to simplification of the procedure for registration of business entities and setting up a one-stop-shop company registration system.

Karanovic & Partners has announced it entered into an agreement with Gypsy Roma Urban Balkan Beats to provide ongoing pro bono legal support on contracts, scholarships, and copyright matters.

Ilej & Partners, in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners and working with Dentons, has advised Singapore's Hotel Properties Limited on its acquisition of a 50% stake in Kupari resort developer Avenue Ulaganja.

Data controllers and data processors had until 24 August 2021 to align with the new Law on Personal Data Protection in North Macedonia (“Law”), which introduced the GDPR in the local legislation at the beginning of 2020. Non-compliance with the new obligations for personal data protection can lead to severe penalties, such as fines of up to 2% and up to 4% of the total annual turnover from the previous financial year, per misdemeanor.

Following the record-long period, since May 25, 2018, during which Slovenia failed to adopt a relevant GDPR-implementing act, the Slovenian Government has sent a new draft of the Slovenian Data Protection Act for public discussion. If the parliamentary process runs uninterruptedly, the adoption of the new Act can be expected by the fall of this year.

The Serbian Data Protection Law that was adopted in November 2018 to align Serbia’s data protection laws with the GDPR has now been in force for almost two years (its application commenced nine months after its date of adoption, in August 2019).

The amendments of the Act on the Prohibition of Unfair Trading Practices in the Food Supply Chain (the “Amended Act”) shall enter into force on 1 September 2021, with a few exceptions. The main reason for adopting these amendments was transposition of the Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain (the “Directive”) into the local legal regime. The Directive aims to set out the minimum Union standard of protection by harmonizing Member States’ diverging measures relating to unfair trading practices. With these amendments, the Amended Act is further harmonized with EU acquis.

In August 2021, the Law on Financial Support of Investments (“Law”) in North Macedonia has undergone several amendments. Changes are focused on easing the conditions for application, affecting the balanced regional development, and speeding up the procedures for payment of the granted funds.

During the summer, the Assembly in North Macedonia adopted relevant amendments to the Labour Law concerning the conditions for retirement. According to the estimations by the proposers of the amendment, around 6000 employees from the public and the private sector already reached 64 years of age by the end of 2020.

Annual reports make up a fundamental part of many regional CEE law firms’ marketing strategies, providing those firms with an annual opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise in a particular area, their geographic footprints, and their ownership and facility with the research and technological tools and manpower necessary for the production of such comprehensive projects.

Karanovic & Partners has advised Founders Jasmina Knezevic and Milan Knezevic on the sale of a 70% share in Bel Medic to Acibadem Healthcare Group. Prica & Partners and Esin Attorney Partnership advised Acibadem on the deal.

The Law on Electronic Invoicing entered into force on 7 May 2021 (“Official Gazette of the RS“, no. 44/2021). It obliges public and business entities to use the system of electronic invoices for issuing, sending, receiving and storing electronic invoices. On July 9 2021, the government adopted a set of bylaws necessary to implement the law.

With the enactment of the new Law on Personal Data Protection (“Law”) in 2020, North Macedonia largely harmonized its data protection legislation with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Karanovic & Partners and Dentons have advised the Green for Growth Fund on its EUR 3.5 million equity investment in Thor Impex Skopje, partially funding the construction and operation of a 36-megawatt wind farm near Bogoslovec in North Macedonia.