Contributed by Rowan Legal.

The Czech Chamber of Deputies approved an amendment to Act No. 127/2005 Coll., on Electronic Communications (hereinafter referred to as the “ECA”), after the Czech Senate returned it earlier. The purpose of this amendment is primarily to harmonise Czech legislation with the European Electronic Communications Code. However, the amendment will also affect other areas that are not directly related to the Code. One of the most significant changes will affect anyone who operates a website or mobile application and uses statistical, analytical or advertising tools. The change is to move from the current opt-out principle for the use of cookies and similar tracking technologies to an active user consent regime, the so-called opt-in regime.

On the 10th of June 2020, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic passed a judgment in case Ref. No. 31 ICdo 36/2020, which dealt with the validity of a contract concluded between the sole proprietor of a company and the same company represented by its sole proprietor. In this case, the Supreme Court deviated from its past decisions on the issue of interpretation of the notion of manifest disruption of public order. Whereas the Supreme Court had previously interpreted the word “manifest” as expressing the degree of intensity of public disturbance, the current decision accepted that a manifest disruption of public order could be interpreted as an undoubted or unambiguous disruption of public order, without regard to the intensity of the disruption.

Since the introduction of the institution of legal entities’ exemption from criminal liability in 2016, there has been discussion on the distribution of the burden of proof in proving the conditions for its application in criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, the prosecution’s view has been gradually changing.

The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic published its finding Ref. No. PL ÚS 25/19 that rejects the proposal of the Supreme Administrative Court to repeal Section 80 par. 1 and 2 of the Rules of Administrative Court Procedure (RACP). The Court declared that the existence of a one-year limit for the filing of an action against the inaction of an administrative body is not itself contrary to the domestic constitutional order. Concurrently, another exchange of arguments has taken place in Joštova Street. Petr Zábranský and Martin Mezenský comment on the latest findings of the Constitutional Court.

On June 10th, 2020, the so-called big conceptual amendment to the Labor Code was passed. The amendment transposes European law (the directive concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services) into the Czech legal order, primarily aiming at facilitating the establishment of employment relationships. One of the major changes introduced by the amendment, which will affect virtually every employee, with effect from 1.1.2021, is the new leave entitlement concept. This concept of leave calculation in the future should be fairer on employees, especially on those whose working hours are unevenly scheduled into shifts.

The protection of whistle-blowers concerns persons who report the abuse of rights, illegal activity, corruption or other damage to public interests, which they found out about in the course of their work.

The most substantial changes to the BCA (effective as of 1.01.2021) will be:

The Supreme Court confirmed in a recent decision that the court can appoint an insolvency trustee as a liquidator of a legal entity that is being dissolved even without his consent. Under what conditions can the court do so and which insolvency trustee can it appoint?

On the 30th of July 2020, or more precisely the 1st of January 2021, a long-awaited amendment to the Labor Code will come into force. Its aim is among others to facilitate the enforcement of employees’ rights, to facilitate communication between the employer and employee, to increase the flexibility of working processes or, for instance, to reduce the administrative burden of some obligations placed on the employer. The Labor Code amendment reflects a wide range of practical problems and regulates a wide range of important institutions. In this short summary, we will discuss the most significant changes that will be brought about by the amendment.

“The Czech Republic is currently among the worst-hit countries when it comes to Covid,” says Rowan Legal Partner Michal Nulicek. “We have more than ten thousand new cases every day – which is a lot, considering that the entire country has about ten million people living in it.”

The European Commission has presented a proposal for two regulations that aim to harmonize the rules of the digital space in the European Union. The first regulation called the Digital Services Act focuses on the regulation of digital services of all kinds, and primarily protects the recipient of the services from illegal content, infringement of their consumer rights, and other risks.

The High Court of Olomouc in its decision 5 Cmo 15/2020 among other things commented on when a member of the statutory body should be held liable for their obligations to a business corporation upon a business corporation’s bankruptcy within the meaning of Section 68 of Act N. 90/2012 Coll., to regulate commercial companies and cooperatives (Business Corporations Act, hereinafter referred to as “BCA”), which regulates “punitive liability”, the aim of which is to compensate the creditors of a business corporation for deterioration in the recoverability of claims which was caused by the corporation’s bankruptcy or by a member (or former member) not exercising their office with due care, because the member failed to take all necessary and reasonably foreseeable steps to prevent the bankruptcy (even though he or she knew that the business corporation was facing an imminent threat of bankruptcy, or should and could have known it).

Electronic surveillance is regulated by Article 158d of the Rules of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter the “RoCP”), in the marginal section called “Surveillance of Persons and Items”. However, the term “electronic surveillance” itself is foreign to the RoCP, and this area is not regulated in sufficient detail on a legal level. At the same time, electronic surveillance is being used increasingly in practice and undoubtedly represents a significant intrusion into the privacy of the persons under surveillance.

A New York court has recently ruled that the depiction of Humvee vehicles manufactured by AMG in Activision games is not an infringement of intellectual property and falls under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This may signify a radical change in game studios' approach to content licensing.

The Office for Personal Data Protection has released an inspection plan for the year 2020, which announces that this year they aim at intensively focusing on cookie use and plan to start 8 inspections at once that are intended to check cookie use. Yet, cookies are also the subject of interest for some other inspection offices that have made numerous statements about the use of cookies. While in the rest of the EU, users’ consent is required before storing cookies (the opt-in principle), according to the current Czech legislation embedded in Act N. 127/2005 Coll., on Electronic Communications, cookies can be used until the user says something (opt-out principle).

Why is a whistleblowing system necessary and how can it help you save your good reputation, organization, investments, and even your freedom?

Interview with the Partners of the New NGL Symbio Alliance.