The European Commission is preparing a new regulation on so-called green bonds, the draft for which is already in its final form and should be approved by the European Parliament shortly. The regulation will allow issuers to issue bonds under the unified designation "European green bond", in exchange for compliance by issuers with certain conditions and obligations related to the financing of their sustainable projects.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court ruled on the validity of a provision in an agreement on a future agreement and which provided for an "automatic" transfer of the ownership title to the object of the sale if the future agreement was not concluded within a certain period of time. Essentially, both an agreement on a future agreement, which anticipated the subsequent conclusion of the transfer agreement, and a conditional transfer agreement itself were included in one document. The Supreme Court found that such an arrangement did not invalidate the agreement.

The Office for the Protection of Competition has recently published the results of a sectoral investigation in the pharmaceutical sector. The sectoral investigation is a tool used by both, national competition authorities and the European Commission to comprehensively investigate competition rules in a given sector, especially if they suspect that competition rules are being violated.

The Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic will soon decide whether to pay for the Czech Republic to become part of the prestigious MICHELIN Guide. The MICHELIN Guide is asking for CZK 10 million for this "service" for the next three years.

If you need statistical data maintained by the National Health Information System for your work or scientific research, whether demographic data on births or deaths, statistics on cancer patients, information on assisted reproduction or other information, you will be interested in a landmark decision of the Constitutional Court.

In its recent decision in re Smusta a.s., the Supreme Court ruled on the possibility to avoid a corporate transformation in insolvency proceedings.

For the last couple of months, we have all experienced a shortage of certain pharmaceuticals on the market, especially antibiotics or pharmaceuticals for fever reduction for children. Given that this situation reoccurs almost every flu season, the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic has newly established a formal working group monitoring the availability of pharmaceuticals on the market. The Ministry of Health is also preparing the amendment to the Act on Pharmaceuticals so that it can, on its own or in cooperation with the State Institute for Drug Control („SUKL“), better respond to urgent drug shortages in case of crisis situations.

On 28 November 2022, the Council of the European Union gave final approval on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

As a capital gain arising from foreign exchange activities, the sale of bitcoin for Czech currency is not exempt from income tax.

In April 2022 deputies of the Slovak parliament, approved two long-awaited laws: Act No 200/2022 on zoning (‘the Zoning Act’); and Act No 201/2022 on construction (‘the Construction Act’). These two laws are about to replace the 1976 Building Act. Although they do not take effect until 1 April 2024, they bring such fundamental changes that need to be considered right away, in particular by the developers and real estate investment funds. The most significant of these changes are summarised below.

Thanks to its qualities - environmental friendliness and a wide range of applications, hydrogen occupies an increasingly central place as an energy carrier. Focus on its use, and in particular on the use of green hydrogen, is also placed at European Union (“EU”) level, where in a number of acts, it is considered an important factor for decarbonization, fulfillment of the global goals of the Paris Agreement and achievement of carbon neutrality until 2050. The reason is that both hydrogen and electricity can be generated from greenhouse gas neutral sources addressing climate change and air quality issues. To deploy green hydrogen and turn it into a viable solution to decarbonize, a lot of investments and a favorable regulatory framework are required.

Imagine receiving a letter that your real estate located in Bulgaria will, in fact, “change” its location within the neighborhood. This can come up as a shock to any international investor in Bulgaria. Such companies might wish to finance certain entrepreneurial construction activity in Bulgaria, and therefore, acquire one or more plots of land. This sort of legal conundrum is indeed possible in Bulgaria and this article will look into its intricacies.

A major amendment to consumer law is on the horizon in the Czech Republic, and although it has so far undergone only a first reading in the Chamber of Deputies, it is not premature to look at its content. As for the most part it consists of the implementation of European directives, which leave almost no room for deviation, no major changes to the proposed draft are expected to be made during the legislative process. Another focus of this legislative amendment is digital content, particularly the rights and obligations connected to its supply.

The Slovak Republic has transposed regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. These regulations are mainly stated in the AML Act.

This article outlines the possibilities of a legal defence against “screenscraping” – a way of automated data extraction from web sites of third parties without their consent (or even against an express prohibition).

The Supreme Court dealt with the liability of the insolvency administrator and the debtor's managing director (CEO) after the declaration of bankruptcy and their obligations to proceed with due managerial care.

According to the Supreme Court, it is. In the case under review, a settlement agreement was concluded between the employer and an employee challenging their dismissal by the employer sending a scan of the signed copy of the agreement to the employee in an e-mail attachment, to which the employee's lawyer responded by e-mail confirming that the agreement was approved and signed by the employee.

In a recently published decision (OGH 4 Ob 145/21h) the Austrian Supreme Court ruled that an auditor who neglects due diligence and therefore issues an incorrect audit opinion shall be liable for damages to a third party who relies on the correctness of such an audit opinion and suffers damages resulting from such reliance.