Pursuant to the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 113/2017 and 91/2019), the National Bank of Serbia shall keep a Unified Register of Payment Service Users for Remittances (hereinafter: the Register). The National Bank of Serbia started keeping this Register from June 1, 2020.

JPM has helped Gastrans d.o.o. Novi Sad draft the Natural Gas Transmission System Network Code, which, with the consent of the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia, entered into force on May 30, 2020.

On 26 May 2020, Republic of Serbia ratified the Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, (CETS 223, “Protocol 223”). This makes Republic of Serbia the fourth country to ratify the Protocol 223 out of 38 signatory states.

As a negative social phenomenon, corruption is present everywhere in the world and is often the topic of legal, sociological, political and philosophical debates. One of the most comprehensive definitions of corruption was offered by the economist Vito Tanci, who believes that corruption exists if there is a deliberate violation of the principle of impartiality in decision-making in order to gain some benefit.

NKO Partners has advised Lola Real Estate on its EUR 7 million acquisition of 9,376 square meters of land in a public tender procedure from the Belgrade Land Agency, then advised Lola Real Estate sole shareholder Loran Soco on the sale of the company to the Czech Republic's UDI Group. Sole practitioner Aleksandra Nedeljkovic advised UDI on the latter deal.

Kinstellar has advised Korea's Kyungshin Cable on the construction of a 12,000-square-meter factory in the Serbian town of Smederevska Palanka, approximately 80 kilometers south of Belgrade. The investment is valued at over EUR 20 million.

Serbia counts more than 12,000 blind and visually impaired people, who are struggling to reach texts and other visual content. To improve their position, Serbia adhered to the Marrakesh Treaty, which is in force as of 24 May 2020.

Entities regularly enter into contractual relationships striving to exercise the rights and obligations specific for a particular relation, in a manner previously defined by the meeting of minds within the limits of mandatory regulations, public order and best practice. When concluding a contract and exercising rights and obligations from such relationship, the parties shall abide by the principles of fairness and diligence.

NKO Partners has advised industrial real estate developer CTP on its EUR 2.1 million acquisition of six hectares of land in Kragujevac, Serbia, from the City of Kragujevac.

Karanovic & Partners has advised Canadian precious and base metals exploration company Tethyan Resource Corp on its acquisition of ten percent of the shares and management control over the of the Serbian geological company EFPP. NKO Partners advised EFPP on the deal.

The Supreme Court of Austria has recently passed a decision whereby it ordered an employer to compensate the employee for non-material damages in the amount of EUR 2,400.00 (cca EUR 400.00 per month of monitoring), as the company vehicle used by the employee was equipped with GPS system for monitoring without appropriate legal ground. The court deemed that the use of GPS tracking system affected the employee’s privacy and thus created basis for damage compensation.

NKO Partners has advised Dr. Max, the largest pharmacy network in Central Europe, on a public-private partnership project involving the concession of 27 state owned pharmacies located in the City of Krusevac and the Rasina District of Serbia.

Samardzic Oreski & Grbovic has advised Bravos Holding on the acquisition of a high-class office building in Belgrade from DUTB.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia amended the Decision Declaring Covid-19 Disease Caused by Sars-Cov-2 Infectious Disease.

BDK Advokati has been appointed to act as the local representative for Google under the Serbian Data Protection Act.

ICT system operators of special importance, i.e. companies operating within the activities specified in the Law on Information Security, are obliged to establish and maintain an adequate ICT system, as well as to review the compliance of applied protection measures with the Law on Information Security, and to make a report on the matter.

After the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia rendered the decision to revoke the state of emergency on 6 May 2020, both administrative authorities and businesses have gradually started to return to their regular activities.

“Well, the Parliament was shut down for almost two months,“ says Darija Ognjenovic, Partner at Prica & Partners in Belgrade. “Given that fact, it is clear why there have been no legislative changes of note other than those related directly to the COVID-19 crisis, instituting measures to protect public health and the economy.“