The Legal 500

On April 14, 2010 the Austrian Cartel Court released a decision1 imposing an overall fine of EUR 1.52 million on four companies participating in a cartel in the printing chemical sector. The investigation of the cartel by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority was triggered by a leniency application. As in other jurisdictions, if all requirements are fulfilled no fine will be imposed on the first leniency applicant for his cooperation. However, in this particular case, the first leniency applicant negligently failed to fulfil its obligation of full cooperation. Consequently, the Austrian Federal Competition Authority requested the Austrian Cartel Court to impose a fine on the first leniency applicant.

On 16 September 2011, the Polish Parliament adopted a significant amendment to the Polish Civil Procedure Code (the “Code”). Most of the changes comprising the amendment came into force on 3 May 2012 (the “Amendment”).

M&A transactions and all forms of corporate reorganisations (e.g. mergers, de-mergers, transformations, contributions in-kind) are governed by the Companies Act (CA).

Once again, business law firm Fellner Wratzfeld & Partners (fwp) is among the front-runners in Austria where international rankings are concerned, a fact confirmed by the Chambers Global Guide 2012, which was published in March 2012.

Public bids are regulated under the 1999 Takeover Act (TA), as thoroughly amended by the 2006 TA Amendment Act. The TA applies provided the target is a joint stock corporation (AG) based in Austria and its shares are admitted to trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Boerse; VSE) at a regulated market.

In the course of the second stabilisation package 2012*, the new § 2 b Labour Market Policy Financing Act (Arbeitsmarktpolitik-Finanzierungsgesetz – AMPFG) was agreed upon.

As of 1 April 2012, the Czech Public Procurement Act (Act No. 137/2006 Coll.) has been significantly amended.

Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Parliament marks the first anniversary of the Renewable Energy Law of 2011 with its first amendment

bankruptcy post Amendment to the Slovak Bankruptcy Act

Construction projects are expensive, and they usually end up being more expensive than agreed. The principal often tries to mitigate this risk by concluding a lump-sum contract.

The finance ministers of the European Union met again last week to discuss the plan of introducing a single EU financial transaction tax. According to the plan, a 0.1 percent tax would be levied on bond and capital transactions, while a 0.01 percent tax would be charged on derivatives transactions.