Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
-
As of September 1st 2016, a newly established special department, dedicated solely to white collar crimes, has commenced its work within the Hungarian Metropolitan Public Prosecution Office (Fővárosi Főügyészség). read more...
-
The CJEU already had the chance to rule on the legitimacy (under copyright law) of hyperlinks to copyrighted works in the Svensson (C-466/12) and Bestwater (C-348/13) cases. In both cases the court came to the conclusion that hyperlinks to copyrighted works freely available on another website are not "communications to the public" (ie a "new public") and therefore do not require the consent of the right holders. read more...
-
On 2 September 2016, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition proposed a draft act for amendments (the "Draft") to the Competition Protection Act (the "CPA"). These amendments aim to implement Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 26 November 2014, on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law, for infringements of competition law provisions of Member States, and of the European Union (the "Directive"). read more...
-
When allocating costs, investment arbitration
tribunals apply two principles: a “pay your own way” principle which provides
that each party pays its own legal costs and they effectively share the costs
of the proceedings, and secondly a “costs follow the event” or “loser pays”
principle which provides that the losing party bears the costs of the
proceedings including the legal costs of the successful party. read more
-
Pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare
suppliers have always been of special interest to the Hungarian Competition
Authority (HCA) due to the associated public health concerns. In light of this,
the HCA has concluded several cooperation agreements with other agencies to
facilitate the investigation of these markets. Initially, the agreements were
developed with the authorities responsible for the authorisation and monitoring
of medical devices and food supplements. read more...
-
After the broker scandals of 2015, the government introduced new protective measures this year to restore Hungarian investors' trust in capital markets instruments and investment service providers. In 2015, it was discovered that some local broker houses had manipulated their information systems and as a result their reports on securities were not an accurate reflection of the reality. read more...
-
On August 28 2014 the Austrian Supreme Court submitted a request to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) (6 Ob 137/13 k) for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of EU law regarding cross-border mergers. read more...
-
Recent media coverage has reported that it will be prohibited for companies to use hashtags such as #Rio2016, or to share official reports regarding the Olympic Games on social media. Are these serious threats? Or are they simply (unsuitable) attempts to protect official sponsors as comprehensively as possible? read more...
-
As of 1 July 2016, an amendment to Act III of 1952 on the Code of Civil Procedure (" Act ") came into force introducing the possibility – sometimes the obligation – to communicate with the courts electronically. read more...
-
While it has been possible to register one or two character domain names ("short domains") under several Top Level Domains (TLDs) for quite some time (eg for the German ".de" TLD, following the 2009 "vw.de" judgment), the Austrian registry operator nic.at has hitherto not delegated short domains under the TLD ".at" (to date the minimum length of domain names under the ".at" top level domain had been three characters). Read more...
UNIVERSITÄTSRING 10, 1010 VIENNA, AUSTRIA