On 20 October 2017, Serbian Business Registry Agency (the “SBRA”) initiated a nationwide process of statutory winding-up of all companies which operate and exist contrary to the Serbian Companies Act (the “Act”).

The Companies Act introduced in 2011 the obligation of the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) to institute compulsory liquidation over companies for failure to comply with legal obligations under the statute.

Gecic Law has acted as legal counsel to the Government of Serbia and the Zelezara Smederevo steel mill with respect to an European Commission investigation on State Aid received by the old company, and the potential obligation of Hesteel Serbia to reimburse it, under the Stabilization and Association Agreement. 

JPM has announced that it has "terminated cooperation" with Partners Uros Markovic and Nikola Vukotic, effective immediately.

A very controversial topic in the modern workplace pertains to the issue of monitoring workplace internet and telephone use by the employer. 

The digital era brought us new ways of distribution of media content, one of them being the performance of services of online media platforms. Since this is a relatively new kind of business activity, it is necessary to analyze the way it fits within the provisions of Serbian legal system. The major question in this respect pertains to potential copyright and related rights infringement.

In recent years, making payments via an escrow account in Serbia has become a much more widely used method of payment in M&A transactions, joint ventures and similar, especially cross-border transactions.

Similarities in legal systems of Serbia and Montenegro as well as common legal market can on many occasions befog some key differences between certain legal terms.  One of such differences is the time limitation of a registered pledge on movable assets.

The commercial legal markets of Central & Eastern Europe didn’t appear automatically. They didn’t develop in a vacuum. They were formed, shaped, and led, by lawyers – visionary, hard-working, commercially-minded, and client-focused individuals pulling the development of CEE’s legal markets along behind them as they labored relentlessly for their clients, their careers, their futures. 

Zivkovic Samardzic has advised Radenska, the Slovenian member of the Kofola CeskoSlovensko Group, on the winding up of its subsidiary in Belgrade.

One of the new possibilities introduced by the new Serbian General Administrative Procedure Act is an administrative guarantee.  It is a statement issued by an authority that it will issue an administrative act at the request of a party.  By issuing an administrative guarantee, the authority guarantees that the act issued will have a precisely defined content.

On 22 September 2017 the public debate on the proposed amendments to the Serbian Companies Act (hereinafter: the “Act“) was initiated.  The changes of the Act are expected to create conditions for further development of the concept of e-government, and are mainly focused on expediting the process of company registration and creating space for further europeanization of business environment in Serbia upon accession to the EU.

Gecic Law has advised the Government of Serbia and the Smederevo steel mill before the European Commission in relation to an anti-dumping investigation involving imports of hot-rolled flat steel products originating in Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. 

Karanovic & Nikolic was part of a consortium of advisors to the City of Belgrade and the IFC on local law aspects of a PPP project for the landfill remediation and development of a waste treatment facility in the Vinca section of Belgrade.

On its way to becoming a Member State of the European Union, Serbia undertook the obligation to implement the fundamental EU principles into its legal system by entering into the Stabilization and Association Agreement (the “SAA”).

Karanovic & Nikolic has advised AmSpec on the acquisition of Agri Services doo — an inspection and testing company serving the Agricultural and Petroleum market in the Danube region from locations in Serbia and Hungary.

JPM and Havel, Holasek & Parters have advised Dr. Max Group on the acquisition by its AsterFarm subsidiary of prominent Serbian pharmacy chains Farmanea and Farmakop. Bojanovic & Partners advised the sellers, Lovorka Nikolic and Miomir Nikolic.

The Appellate Court in Belgrade has granted the appeal of Serbian business magnate Miroslav Miskovic made by his counsel, including JPM Senior Partner Nenad Popovic, and reversed the decision of the Higher Court in Belgrade (Organized Crime Unit), clearing Miskovic of charges of abuse of office and reversing a guilty verdict against him on tax evasion charges.