I have always been a fan of marketing and felt that there was something special about it, even back before I had any real practical experience with it. My career started at an international law firm – Hogan Lovells – where marketing was handled both centrally and locally. I became a fan of the field and learned to consider the brand as something potentially very valuable and helpful both in attracting new clients and employees and in retaining existing ones. It also showed me that marketing activities must be conducted systematically.

The District Court of Liberec as plaintiff called into question the constitutionality of Section 138 Par. 1 of the Criminal Code that determines the property damage threshold after which criminal liability arises. The Court concluded that the regulation contradicts Art. 40 Par. 6 of the Charter, which stipulates that the criminality of a fact must be determined and the punishment must be decided according to the law that is in force at the time when the crime was committed. More recent laws should be applied when it is beneficial to the offender.

A European Parliament press release from the 22^nd of June about agreement on the revised text of the directive on representative actions has raised hopes for the swift finalization of legislation on class actions (“representative actions” in European jargon) on an EU level. The directive, which is part of the new concept of consumer protection – the so-called New Deal for Consumers – was introduced more than two years ago, but due to the strong response to the first motion and the fact that bringing about European class actions is overall a tricky process, it is only this year that some significant progress has finally been made.

The NGL Symbio law firm alliance has announced its creation in five countries of CEE, and its plans to be fully operational by January 1, 2021.

The exchange of personal data between the European Union and the United States have suffered a further setback as the EU Court of Justice ruled against the Commission’s Privacy Shield Decision in the Schrems II case. The consequences could be far-reaching, and impact data flows not only to the United States. While the Court upheld the Commission’s decision regarding Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), any data flow to a third country must respect the GDPR principles and protect the fundamental freedoms of European citizens. The Court made clear that any jurisdiction, into which personal data are transferred, must offer an essentially equivalent level of personal data protection assessed considering both contractual clauses agreed between transferring parties and the relevant aspects of third country’s legal system. Consequently, not only big companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, or Google, but also small and medium-sized businesses, must evaluate all data transfers to non-EU countries and assess the potential risks for the data in question.

The state of emergency is over, government measures are slowly easing up and we are entering the unknown as regards further developments in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (but let’s leave that to the experts). The time is now here to calculate the current and future damage. The measures taken by the government have had an enormous impact on the economy as a whole, as well as on practically every legal and natural person individually: freedom of movement has been restricted, shops and restaurants have been ordered to shut, a ban has been placed on the provision of services and the borders have been closed (all subject to only a few minor exceptions primarily aimed at ensuring basic needs and supplies are satisfied). Furthermore, the government has adopted a number of measures to provide relief to persons affected by the coronavirus pandemic and by the government’s restrictive measures.

It has been roughly a year since the somewhat controversial DSM Directive entered into force on June 7, 2019. The clock is ticking as the EU member states are required to transpose the Directive into national law within 24 months—a half of which is already gone. The most discussed provisions of the DSM Directive are included in its Articles 15 and 17.

Lukas Duffek has been promoted to Salaried Partner at Rowan Legal in the Czech Republic.

Contributed by Rowan Legal

The acquisition of a sports club is definitely a specific process in many respects and requires preparation on several fronts. This article takes a closer look at one of the first steps to undertake before acquiring a sports club, namely legal due diligence. Along with the areas usually checked, one must pay attention to several specific areas stemming from the specific characteristics of the sport (and each type of sport has not only its own considerable further specifics, but also its own unique risks).

Plea bargain should be possible to arrange in cases of major criminal offences. Further planned novelty is a guilty plea.

On February 7, 2020, the German federal competition authority prohibited Facebook from combining user data with data from its other services (WhatsApp, Instagram etc.) and third party webpages. The authority also questioned the legality of the consent to this processing, which is a condition to using Facebook. What impact will this have on Facebook and other companies, which based their business model on processing of their users’ personal data?

Former Managing Associates Lukas Sommer and Jiri Votrubec have been promoted to partner at Rowan Legal.

Schoenherr Prague has advised Spanish manufacturer Torrot Electric Europa, S.A. on the "delivery of technology solutions" for scooter sharing to Skoda Auto DigiLab s.r.o. Rowan Legal advised Skoda Auto DigiLab on the deal.

JSK, working in cooperation with solo practitioner Pavel Suser, has advised the shareholders of James Cook Languages on the sale of 100% of the company to Vladimir Schmalz and his EDUA Group. Rowan Legal advised the EDUA Group on the acquisition.