Law 39/2023, which was published in Official Gazette No. 40/13.01.2023, contains important amendments to the Romanian Fiscal Code.

On December 27, 2022, Dentons announced that aiMotive's sale to Stellantis (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 30, 2022) had closed.

Lately, the tech industry seems to have taken a major hit, with more and more companies deciding to lay off hundreds or even thousands of employees and/or implementing a hiring freeze until next year. When we see FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet) announcing such massive layoffs, there is no point asking whether this will affect the entire tech industry. However, the question remains whether this will trigger a domino effect in the market, or even if it is the start of a new HR layoff trend and how companies should approach this situation.

Law 367/ 2022 on social dialogue was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 1238 of 22 December 2022 ("Law 367/ 2022").

Former SSW Partner Renata Patoka and former MJH Partner Karol Kicun have joined Noerr’s Polish mergers and acquisitions practice as Associated Partners.

The Slovak Republic has now adopted legislation that focuses on the technological development for autonomous driving and intelligent mobility. On 8 November 2022, the President of the Slovak Republic signed the Act amending certain laws in relation to the development of automated vehicles.

On December 1, 2022, SMM Legal announced that MOL's acquisition of Lotos Paliwa (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 2, 2022) had closed. Subsequently, Baker McKenzie announced that Orlen Unipetrol's acquisition of Hungarian petrol stations from MOL (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 1, 2022) had closed as well. 

Primarily driven by greenfield investments, supply chain overhauls, and geopolitical implications, the hottest practice of Noerr’s Warsaw office has been Real Estate, according to Associated Partner and recently appointed Head of Office Pawel Zelich.

Noerr Partner Joerg Menzer will be the new Secretary-General of the International Bar Association, starting from January 1, 2023.

A hot topic in today's Romanian tax world is the activity of online “opinion makers”, i.e. influencers, bloggers and vloggers, and not only, related to the well-known online and social media platforms, according to an investigation carried out by the Romanian tax authorities. “Why?” one may ask.

Law no. 53/2003 - Labour Code (the “Labour Code”) will be amended by Law no. 283/ 2022 for amending and supplementing Law no. 53/2003, as well as by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2019 regarding the Administrative Code, which was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 1013 of 19.10.2022 (“Law 283/ 2022”).

Law No 265/2022 on the Trade Registry and on the amendment and completion of other acts of law affecting the registration with the Trade Registry (“Law No. 265/2022”) was published in the Romanian Official Gazette on 26 July 2022 and will enter into force on 26 November 2022.

A joint order of the Ministers of Finance and of Research, Innovation and Digitization, No 3.265/21.453/2022, published in Official Gazette No 967 on 4 October 2022, (the “Order”) amends and supplements joint order of the Ministers of Public Finance and of National Education and Scientific Research No 1.056/4.435/2016 to approve norms on de-ductions for research and development expenses when calculating the taxable result for profit tax purposes.

Law no. 275/2022 to repeal Government Emergency Ordinance no. 37/2021 to amend and supplement Law no. 53/2003 - Labour Code has been published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 961 of 3 October 2022 (“Law 275/2022”).

A draft amendment to the Czech Labour Code, to transpose European legislation into the Czech legal system, is currently being considered by Czech ministries. As the amendment introduces significant changes that will affect almost all employers, allow us to present you with a brief summary of at least the most important ones.

The Whistleblowing Act in Romania (currently in the form of a revised bill, again waiting for a final vote in the Parliament) has been hotly debated over and over again during the past year: authorities, consultants, lawyers, employers and anti-fraud specialists have been going through the bill in detail and working out the challenges it will raise, both for public entities and private companies. 

According to the latest figures from the National Institute for Statistics and other public information, the annual inflation rate has continued to rise and, at 15.32% in August, reached its highest rate in 20 years. Inflation has been rising at a galloping rate over the past year, both globally and nationally. 

The Ministry of Economy has officially announced the opening of the call for submission of applications under the state aid scheme regulated by Government Decision no. GD 959/2022 for financing assets and/or salary costs. The period for submitting financing requests is scheduled between 1 November 2022 to 16 December 2022, when investors may file the relevant documentation.