On February 22, 2024, Bulgaria, previously one of the few remaining EU countries without foreign direct investment (FDI) controls, introduced a new FDI screening regime in accordance with the EU FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452 (the “EU FDI Screening Regulation”).

Finnish Hameenlinna Administrative Court made a historic resolution on 22.02.2024, in which it found that Wolt couriers are entrepreneurs, not employees. The question of whether platform employees are independent entrepreneurs or salaried employees is also relevant in Estonia. If and how can the resolution of the Finnish court affect how the activities of couriers would be qualified according to Estonian law?

The new provisions on compulsory environmental insurance entered into force on 1 January 2024 through the modification of the Waste and a new Government Decree.

On 16 January 2024, the Law No. 17/2024 amending and supplementing Law No. 237/2015 on the authorisation and supervision of insurance and reinsurance activities, as well as amending and supplementing certain regulatory acts was published in Official Gazette Of Romania No. 36., aiming to strengthen the protection of both policyholders and beneficiaries by ensuring the stability of the insurance market and a greater degree of predictability in the development of each individual company and the insurance market as a whole.

Until recently, Bulgaria was one of the few remaining EU countries not to have adopted a foreign direct investment (FDI) screening regime. However, this was set to change with the introduction of a bill in late June 2023 to amend the Investment Promotion Act. This amendment implements the screening mechanism outlined in Regulation (EU) 2019/452 (the "EU FDI Screening Regulation").

On 14 February 2024 the Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia no. IUz-60/2021 was published, which determines that the provision of Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Law on Financial Support for Families with Children (“Off. Gazette of the RS”, no. 113/17, 50/18, 46/21 – Decision of the CC, 51/21 – Decision of the CC, 53/21 – Decision of the CC, 66/21, 130/21, 43/23 – Decision of the CC and 62/23), is not in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia in the part that reads:

Under Hungarian law, conciliation boards were set up more than two decades ago, which provide a fast, efficient and inexpensive forum for dispute resolution compared to litigation in specific cases. The competence of the conciliation boards in relation to goods and services covers (i) the quality and safety of the services; (ii) application of product liability rules; and (iii) conclusion and performance of contracts. This type of conciliation can only be initiated by the consumer as an individual.

From 1 January 2024, taxpayers can benefit from a tax allowance for investments in the construction of electricity storage facilities. The tax allowance is available for 6 tax years, with the first tax year being either the year of installation or the following tax year, at the taxpayer's option. This incentive is intended to encourage the installation of new electricity storage facilities which enable the taxpayer to store electricity generated for its own use.

Competition law reform in Albania is underway, marked by several important changes to Law no. 9121, dated 28.07.2003, “On Protection of Competition” (“Competition Law”). Within the context of harmonizing with the EU acquis, last November, the Albanian Competition Authority (“ACA”) launched a public consultation phase for the proposed amendments to the Competition Law (“Draft Law”). However, the final version of the Draft Law has not yet been submitted to Parliament.

In the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia no. 6/2024 from January 26, 2024, the following by-laws have been published:

For those familiar with the situation in the world of football in Europe, the end of 2023 was very interesting bearing in mind that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) made two important decisions concerning football organizations FIFA and UEFA.

The Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (“ANRE”) has announced important amendments to the rules for connecting new power-generation capacities to the public network.

Starting on 1 January 2024, a new feature was launched regarding personal income allowances, meaning that certain tax base reduction allowances can also be claimed on a continuing basis. The purpose of the existing tax advance return is to allow the employer to determine and deduct the tax advance, considering both benefits and costs.

The Polish Data Protection Authority (PUODO) has recently published its new sectoral inspection plan for 2024. Every year, the authority indicates which business sectors or specific processing operations will be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny and potential enforcement for failure to comply. This year, the plan includes three points, one of which relates to public authorities processing personal data in the Schengen Information System (SIS) and Visa Information System (VIS). However, the other two points of the plan are relevant to businesses across all sectors in the private sector.

Nowadays, one can hear a lot about generative artificial intelligence ("Generative AI"), which can be used to create different types of content (e.g., text, images, software source code) in an automated way by giving simple instructions (so-called "prompts"). Companies may reasonably ask whether it is worth investing, at this point, in software using Generative AI; however, the current Hungarian legislative environment does not provide answers to this question, which could clearly provide guidance in all cases, on a general basis. For this reason, the legal implications of each investment (be it either procurement or "in-house" development) need to be examined on a case-by-case basis.

Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act) entered into force on 11 January 2024, and it will become applicable in September 2025. Entrepreneurs therefore still have 19 months to prepare for the changes. What changes does the new EU regulation provide for?

A new piece of the complex puzzle of public private partnerships in Romania came recently into the form of a new law, namely Law no. 7/2024 for the approval of Government Emergency Ordinance no.39/2018 on PPP (“Law 7/2024”), which brings significant amendments to the PPP regime. Also, in order to further support the recourse to the PPP tool, the Public Investment Management Unit within the Ministry of Finance commissioned a technical assistance project with DG Reform following which a comprehensive package of guides were published on 9 February 2024 on the website of the Ministry of Finance, with the aim to facilitate the understanding by the public sector of this tool, in order to increase its use in practice.

By Decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") of 14.12.2023 in case C‑340/21 the CJEU clarified several controversial aspects of the implementation of the GDPR.