New Type of Industrial Parks

Starting from the mid-2000s, industrial parks (IPs) have developed rapidly in Russia. By 2018, there were 166 IPs located across 51 constituent parts of Russia.

The demand for residential real estate is currently experiencing an unprecedented boom in Slovakia. According to official market surveys, the average price of flats has already exceeded the levels recorded before the outbreak of the world financial crisis, and further price increases are expected due to lagging supply and readily available sources of cheap funding from domestic banks. Not surprisingly, these conditions have resulted in a significant increase in the indebtedness of private households, which are currently the highest in the CEE region.

With the Greek peak summer holiday season fast approaching, hosts leasing out their properties through sharing-economy digital platforms are seeking the best way to make themselves compliant with the applicable regulatory framework.

The Serbian Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure has initiated the process of amending the country’s Planning and Construction Act, with the aim of boosting the construction industry and making the legal environment in the sector more predictable, reliable, and investor-friendly. The Serbian construction law has been revolutionized the last few years, with the introduction of e-permits and the unclogging of many sclerotic procedural labyrinths, so the readiness of the Serbian government to continue with the reforms and modernization is generating new excitement in the construction sector.

Many real estate experts and market players are upbeat about the positive trends on the Ukrainian real estate market, which is recovering after a significant downturn in 2013–2015. As the political and economic situation improves and the conflict in the south-west of the country stabilizes, foreign investors, attracted by market opportunities, are showing increasing interest in Ukraine.

Romanian authorities have been busy this year putting forward several pieces of legislation affecting the construction field, including, most importantly: (i) a draft of a new law on authorizing construction; (ii) a draft proposal for amending the current application norms for the existing Construction Law; and (iii) preliminary theses for a long-awaited Urban Planning and Construction Code. These proposals were all designed to further the ambitious aim of unifying all the regulations on town planning and construction.

Does buying land make you the owner of the buildings on that land as well? In many situations, the answer is yes, but in the context of the public sale of property within enforcement proceedings, this is not always the case.

It has been more than four years since new legislation revolutionizing Czech private law came into effect, mainly through the adoption of a new Civil Code. Among the most affected industries was real estate, traditionally a very strong investment sector on the Czech market. How has life been since this revolution?

Crowded cities and unplanned urbanization have always plagued Turkey. According to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (the “Ministry”), more than ten million structures in the country violate zoning laws and regulations. These structures, including factories, shopping malls, and office buildings, are built without a construction permit, used without an occupancy permit, or violate other laws.

A new buzzword has reached the Real Estate world and its service providers, including the legal community: “PropTech.” PropTech – or “Property Technology” – is simply shorthand for various IT applications that are specifically designed to address the needs of the real estate industry.

In the Croatian legal system, the relation between two legal principles – the principle that no one can transfer more rights to another than he himself has, on the one hand, and the principle of public trust in land registry, on the other – has been the subject of significant analysis and numerous discussions and Croatian Constitutional Court decisions.

When I was first asked to write an Editorial for CEE Legal Matters, I was told that it should be something personal or funny. As “funny,” by definition, does not get along with the legal profession very well, I will have to stick to reflecting on my 20-year career. I will share a few thoughts on the dilemma of whether to pursue a legal career in London or in Bratislava and on the changing world around us that impacts (and arguably, enhances) the lives of legal practitioners in one of the CEE countries.

To a large extent, the ability of law firm marketing and business development experts to successfully promote the firms they work within depends on the support they get from their firms’ partners. So we asked them: What partner at your firm would you single out for her/his recognition of the value of what you do and ability to get you what you need efficiently and quickly?

With its National Data Protection Amendment Act 2018 (“DSG 2018”) enacted well before the May 25th 2018 deadline, Austria is considered to be one of the EU leaders regarding the implementation of the GDPR. To be precise, the DSG 2018 was implemented in May, 2017, shortly before Austria’s national elections took place. The consequence of Austria’s attempt to play a pioneering role is that the DSG 2018 was rushed, and thus, at least in some parts, extremely difficult to read – and it fails to take advantage of the majority of the permitted GDPR derogations.

For a number of years, Slovakian courts struggled with domain name disputes. Because there was neither statutory legislation concerning the rights to domain names nor consistent case-law allowing for the formulation of principles for resolving disputes that arose involving them, different courts took different approaches regarding how to decide domain name cases. This made legal certainty and predictability extremely difficult for stakeholders in the country.

With the tremendous increase in the price of cryptocurrencies in 2017 the world has witnessed an explosion of cryptocurrency-related enterprises, with initial coin offerings at the forefront. Several European countries have aligned their legislation to become appealing for such enterprises and Slovenia has been mentioned on several occasions as one of the most “crypto-friendly” countries. However, as Slovenian legislation offers a very high level of protection to personal data regarding identity documents, crypto business ventures within the Slovenian jurisdiction may be at a disadvantage against foreign competitors.

More than two years ago a new system for examining trademark applications was introduced in Poland. The purpose of the so-called “opposition system” was to adapt Polish regulations to EU and international regulations and the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice.

Starting May 25, 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect. Although it will apply directly in all EU Member States, Member States have the option to add additional regulations to certain specific situations. This article sets out a brief overview of the key provisions of the draft of the relevant Croatian law, which is in procedure before the Croatian Parliament at the moment of writing of this article.