NKO Partners has helped Konica Minolta Serbia, a part of a Japanese multinational technology company, obtain a favorable judgment from the Administrative Court of Serbia, which annulled a fine previously levied against the company by the Serbian Competition Commission for allegedly entering into restrictive agreements.

Serbian Chamber of Commerce has announced that the working group for drafting a proposal for legal framework to govern blockchain technology and trading with cryptocurrencies has been established.

JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic has advised sellers Milija Babovic and Apsara on the sale of a 67% stake in the Victoria Group to the MK Group.

National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Law on Alternative Investment Funds (“The Law”) which came into force on 19 October 2019 and which became applicable on 20 April 2020.

Ever since General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, “GDPR”) entered into force in 2018, companies around the world have put their best effort in achieving full compliance. Despite their best efforts, some companies have found themselves on the receiving end of enormous fines imposed by their national Data Protection Authorities.

On 23 December 2019, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia enacted the new Law on Public Procurement (hereinafter: the Law) and most of its provisions will start to apply from 1 July 2020.

Karanovic & Partners have advised Serbian IT company 3Lateral on its EUR 7.7 million acquisition of a 6,500-square-meter lot from the City of Novi Sad.

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.