Hungary has introduced a UBO register in line with the EU’s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive by way of Act XLIII of 2021 on the Establishment and Operation of the Data Reporting Background for the Identification Tasks of Financial and Other Service Providers (“Act”). Certain provisions of the Act will come into force at a later date.

Radovanovic Stojanovic & Partners and Cerha Hempel have advised AIK Banka, Gorenjska Banka, and Agri Europe Cyprus on their acquisition of Sberbank Europe’s shares in six CEE banks. Noerr advised the buyers on Hungarian law, while Maric & Co, Zuric and Partners, Tos & Partners, and Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners reportedly advised the buyers on Bosnian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Russian matters, respectively.

Order no. 1721/2021, regarding the management of large taxpayers (“the Order”) was published on 3 November 2021, in the Official Gazette no. 1051/03.11.2021.

The Hungarian Parliament has recently put on its agenda a new bill, No. T/17280 (the “Bill”) that aims to implement two amendments to the “Consolidated Company Law Directive” of the European Union (Directive (EU) 2017/1132). One of them is the so-called “Digitalization Directive” (Directive (EU) 2019/1151 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 as regards the use of digital tools and processes in company law).

Noerr has advised Polish logistics company X-press Couriers on its sale to e-commerce platform Allegro. DLA Piper advised the buyer.

The current political atmosphere in Poland is rather turbulent, according to Noerr Partner Radoslaw Biedecki, as the government is losing support and the opposition remains divided.

Several measures related to the Labour Code and other employment legislation have been adopted by the Romanian Government and have immediate effect on employment relationships.

Following intensive negotiations between the business community and the Romanian government, the Romanian parliament has issued a bill on the enforcement of a tax amnesty for tax liabilities, including late payment interest and penalties, imposed by the tax authorities following the reassessment of daily allowances as salary income.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (“EDPS”) has issued a guidance document entitled “Return to the Workplace and EUI’s (European Institutions, Agencies and Bodies) screening of Covid immunity or infection status” (the “Guidance”).

European Directive no. 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment was transposed into Romanian law as of 2 September 2021 by Ordinance no. 6/2021 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (the “Ordinance”).

On 31 August 2021, Government Ordinances nos. 8/2021 and 11/2021, amending the Fiscal Code and the Fiscal Procedure Code, were published in the Official Gazette no. 832/31.08.2021.

Following the adoption of the GDPR, an important new element was brought into Romania’s legal framework – the required designation of a Data Protection Officer (DPO), which is mandatory in some cases.

According to Barbara Kusak, Partner at Noerr in Prague, the Czech Republic is currently preparing for its upcoming general elections. She also notes that the Czech economy shows no signs of contraction, despite the country’s abysmal COVID-19 infection rates, and that the infrastructure, IT, and e-commerce sectors are on the rise.

Following the adoption of regulations allowing profit tax consolidation in late 2020, the Romanian tax authorities issued Order 1191/2021 approving the instructions for implementing and managing Profit Tax Groups (“PTGs”) on 6 August 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on Poland, as it has on other European countries. In April, Poland recorded by far the biggest number of COVID-19 fatalities since the onset of the pandemic in March of last year. Consequently, most of the government’s plans to reform healthcare/pharmaceutical legislation have been either frozen or postponed. Most recent legislation has been aimed at legalizing the lockdown or enacting other pandemic measures, such as social distancing and mask-wearing in public spaces, as well as speeding up the vaccination rollout across the country. However, these new laws were essentially technical adjustments to the current framework, rather than revolutionary changes.

The Polish economy has recovered quickly following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the number of transactions is fairly consistent across various industries, reports Radoslaw Biedecki, Partner at Noerr in Poland. The country is pushing for further digitalization of its public services, but draft legislation on media ownership has him concerned.

The European Data Protection Supervisor has published a case-law digest on the transfer of personal data to third countries¹. The case-law digest aims to clarify the structure of the analysis carried out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in judgments concerning the transfer of personal data to third countries, in particular by highlighting the steps followed and the jurisprudential acquis in relevant case law.

The close relationship between data protection and cyber security results from Art. 5 of the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) which outlines one of the most important principles relating to processing of personal data: “integrity and confidentiality”.