The Legal 500

Legal Developments in Serbia

• NEW COMPANY LAW IN SERBIA

  In May 2011, the Serbian parliament adopted a new company law, which is scheduled to take effect on 1 February 2012 (hereinafter: the “New Company Law”). The new legislation will replace the current company law that has been in force since 2004 (hereinafter: the “Old Company Law”)
  - Kinstellar

• Serbia Business Crime 2012

  A practical cross-border insight into business crime
  - Schönherr

• Czech Republic: Unfair Competition and Infringements of IP Rights – Who Is Competent?

  One of the most important facts to know in dispute resolution law is the local and mate-rial jurisdiction of courts with respect to the proceedings. Significant difficulties could arise if the petition is not brought before the right court, including cancellation of the judgement . As a result, a party should be aware of procedural rules and use them to his advantage, in particular if the dispute was decided by a body not authorised to do so.
  - Schönherr

• Poland: How Lenient should a Leniency Programme be? A Second Chance for Recidivists

  Although the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) states that there shall be no mercy for competition law offenders, recidivists will be granted
  - Schönherr

• Corporate Finance – Need for Modernised Bondholder Laws?

  The proposed future banking regulatory liquidity framework is widely regarded as favouring corporate bond issues as compared to corporate lending. The reasons for this are explained by Walter Gapp in his article in this roadmap.
  - Schönherr

• Changes in the Promotion of Renewable Energy in Slovakia

  In December 2010, the Slovak Parliament adopted an Amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Promotion Act.
  - Schönherr

• Austrian Supreme Court Decides on the Term “Consumer”, also with Respect to Arbitration

  In recent decisions the Supreme Court has established an economic approach to the qualification of shareholders as consumers or entrepreneurs for the purposes of Section 1 of the Consumer Protection Act.
  - Schönherr

• Bulgaria: Recent Merger Review

  Since the beginning of 2010 the Commission for Protection of Competition has issued 25 clearance decisions on notification and five decisions in which it im-posed penalties for non-notification and premature implementation of concen-trations. Some of the commission's decisions issued on notifications are sum-marised below.
  - Schönherr

• Austria: Mergers and Demergers - Documents Equivalent to Prospectus

  In the event of a public offer of securities, in order for the securities to be offered legally to investors, a prospectus must be prepared, approved by the competent authority and published. However, Article 4 of the EU Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC) contains certain exemptions from the obligation to publish a prospectus. For several recent mergers in Austria (1) questions have arisen as to whether they constituted public offers of shares in the transferee companies and, thus, whether prospectuses should have been published.
  - Schönherr

• Ukraine: New Labour Code

  The Parliament of Ukraine plans to adopt the new Labour Code (the Code) at the next plenary session starting mid-December. The Code will replace the long-standing and quite outdated Soviet Labour Code of 1971, as well as a number of other legal acts and regulations which currently supplement the Labour Code of 1971.
  - Schönherr