PRK Partners Partner Radan Kubr, ACI Partners Senior Associate Doina Doga, Schoenherr Bulgaria Co-Head of Competition Yoana Strateva, Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii Partner and Head of Competition & Antitrust Raluca Vasilache, Zornada Law Office Attorney at Law Ivan Zornada, and DLA Piper Hungary Country Managing Partner Andras Posztl explore how, respectively, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Hungary approach foreign investment screening: the differences in strictness, the sectors regulators watch most closely, the impact on deals, and the practical challenges investors run into on the ground.

Croatia’s real estate market continues to attract both domestic and foreign investors. Since joining the European Union in 2013 and adopting the euro in 2023, the country has seen a surge in transactions, particularly along the Adriatic coast. Croatia’s modern land-registry system, digitalized public records, and alignment with EU standards have given investors a sense of transparency and security. Yet beneath that surface lie several legal and regulatory complexities that can turn a straightforward acquisition into a costly legal challenge.

Savoric & Partners has advised Raiffeisen Mirovinski Fondovi on the acquisition of a stake in City Center One Split shopping mall.

Wolf Theiss and Cobalt, working with Baer & Karrer, has advised SK Capital LP on its acquisition of Swixx BioPharma Holding in a transaction valuing the company at over EUR 1.5 billion. Walder Wyss reportedly advised Swixx BioPharma.

Croatia’s real estate market is marked by strong demand amid tight supply. Recent analyses note that high demand, inflation-driven price growth, and limited new construction have resulted in a slowdown of the residential real estate market.

Whether an artificial intelligence model can be trained on media content without infringing copyright is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing questions of the AI-copyright interaction. The recent UK High Court ruling in Getty Images v Stability AI has intensified this debate, drawing global attention to the legal boundaries surrounding the use of copyright-protected media content in the training of generative AI systems. Although the case initially included claims concerning the training and development of Stability AI’s image-generation model, the claimants ultimately abandoned those claims. Thus, despite the ongoing heated debate, the UK High Court did not have the opportunity to address the merits of the AI-copyright interaction issue – whether the collection and internal processing of copyrighted works during training constitute copyright infringement.

As the year is coming to an end and attention naturally shifts to closing the quarter and preparing for the holidays, a sense of uncertainty looms over the announced amendments to the Croatian Employment Act (Amendments). The need for speed is clear – all EU member states, including Croatia, are under an obligation to transpose the Directive 2023/970 (popularly called the “Pay Transparency Directive”) by no later than June 7, 2026. Concerns remain well-founded – at the time of writing, there is still no publicly available information on the workgroup tasked with drafting the Amendments, and given the formal steps ahead, from public consultation to parliamentary adoption, meeting the deadline appears increasingly optimistic.

In recent times, authorities throughout Europe and the rest of the world have been focusing on antitrust violations in the labor market. As a result, in 2024, the EU Commission came out with the policy brief on Antitrust in Labor Markets. Although the cases at the EU level have just started to trickle in, many of the European competition authorities have already dealt with the issues concerning no-poach/non-solicitation agreements, wage-fixing, and, to a smaller extent, information exchange. The Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) is no exception.

Croatia is navigating two notable legal developments at the moment: a partly implemented FDI regime that has slowed non-EU investment activity, and a new zoning proposal that is drawing mixed reactions from the market, while broader economic pressures continue to unfold, according to Ostermann Ivancic Managing Partner Mojmir Ostermann.

Stijacic Sostaric has advised Arsano Medical Group, a portfolio company of Provectus Capital Partners, on the acquisition of a majority stake in Prima Nova from Damir Todoric. Sole practitioner Ana Manola reportedly advised the seller.

Divjak Topic Bahtijarevic & Krka has advised the Spotler Group on its acquisition of Webpower Adria. Jujnovic Lucic Markovic Ivandic Galic advised the sellers – Jan de Jong and Martina Sepic.

BDV has advised Telegram Media Group on its acquisition of Story.hr. together with Sensa, Storybook, and Roditelji.hr from Mondo Inc Zagreb. Wahl advised the sellers.

Savoric & Partners has promoted Nives Nola to Partner.

In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. This time around, we asked: What is the one most time-consuming administrative task for you as a Managing Partner, and what, if anything, have you done to try to minimize time spent on it?

Karanovic & Partners, working with White & Case, has advised MidEuropa on the sale of regional dairy producer Imlek to a consortium comprising the family holding of entrepreneur and investor Andrej Jovanovic as lead investor and Imlek’s current CEO Bojan Radun. Sijercic & Partners and Ilej & Partners in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners advised MidEuropa as well. Kinstellar advised the buyers.

Savoric & Partners has advised Invera Equity Partners on its investment in Interaktivna Zabava.

Lovric Novokmet & Partners has advised Fortenova Grupa on the sale of Zvijezda Plus Zagreb and Zvijezda Ljubljana to Zito Grupa. Dvojkovic / Bohacek advised Zito Grupa.

Cytowski & Partners has advised Splx on its sale to Zscaler. Kinstellar, working with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, reportedly advised Zscaler.