There were more than 2.7 million vehicles in Bulgaria in 2018, 319,639 of which were newly registered. Yet it appears that such figures, even in a country with a population of less than seven million, don’t necessarily create an opportunity for the development of connected car services. Why aren’t connected cars more significant and widely-used in Bulgaria?

At the moment, there is no generally applicable obligation to report a personal data security breach in Serbia. This type of obligation is currently envisaged only by certain sector specific laws such as the Law on Electronic Communications.

As the country entered the 21st century, Ukraine’s Soviet-era judicial system was widely condemned as corrupt, incompetent, and inefficient. Committed to rectifying the situation, in 2015 the Ukrainian government introduced plans to reform the entire system. That transformation, which was the focus of an August 2017 CEE Legal Matters Round Table, continues today. We reached out to several of the Ukrainian dispute resolution specialists we spoke to several years ago for an update.

In the last ten years, e-commerce has become the most important platform of today’s consumer habits, becoming a major competitor to both retailers and their suppliers. As a result, many giant retailers are now directing their investments towards e-commerce activities.

Ukraine’s international obligations regarding reform of the country’s electricity market are determined by the Treaty establishing the Energy Community and the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community, and their member states.

Ukraine continues to bring its legislation in line with EU legislation, fulfilling its obligations under the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine. One of the ways to improve the laws of Ukraine is to establish a relationship between the consumers, producers, and sellers of goods – especially of non-industrial use goods.

Halfway through 2019 Ukraine has already seen major changes in its energy sector’s legal framework, including the effect of the recent decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine involving the legal status and decision-making authority of the Ukrainian energy market regulator (the “Regulator”). The shockwaves are likely to go far beyond 2019.

5G technology is the next stage in the development of wireless telecommunications networks. Thanks to much quicker data transmission speeds and fewer delays, this technology will make it possible to offer new quality services both for public uses such as smart energy grids, transport systems, and smart cities, and for private uses such as autonomous and automated vehicles and smart homes. Also, given the greater number of devices operated by one network unit, 5G will provide for better configuration options, making it possible to offer different services to a large number of users within one infrastructure. This distinguishes 5G technology from the technologies available today, where the activity of one user has an impact on other users and reduces data transmission speed.

Although the General Data Protection Regulation 216/679 (the GDPR) has been in force for more than a year, the concept of data protection by design (Art. 25) is still largely underestimated and insufficiently implemented into software products and their development processes in Lithuania. Developers of data-rich technologies still disregard or misinterpret this duty despite its business benefits. This is especially true for new technological products which strive for steady and continuous increase in user numbers but lose their grip with user privacy on the way.

Cross-border commercial disputes often raise a number of issues concerning the treatment of foreign litigants in domestic proceedings. A complete overhaul of Ukraine’s procedural rules back in 2017 included a number of specific rules for foreign litigants that they must consider, especially when they have no local presence or assets in Ukraine.

In February 2019 CEE Legal Matters reported that Integrites and K&L Gates had advised Norwegian utility-scale wind power developer NBT and Paris-based renewable energy independent power producer Total Eren on their entrance into a framework agreement with a syndicate of foreign lenders, including the EBRD and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation, for the construction of the Syvash wind farm – one of the largest in Europe. Redcliffe Partners and Clifford Chance advised the lenders and J.P. Morgan Securities Plc as debt coordinator.

The development of autonomous driving has been a recurring topic in the media in recent years. Technology in this area has progressed so much that autonomous vehicles are now ready for test drives on public roads. This development is subsequently exerting great pressure on local governments to create new laws allowing this type of testing and therefore driverless vehicles on public roads.

Economic recovery, growth, and FDI are the main themes of the Greek market, where, after nine years of recession, the economy is beginning to shift and grow.

In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: What was the most difficult or unpleasant experience you had terminating someone’s employment?”

In September 2018 Schoenherr Partner Thomas Kulnigg advised crowd-investing company Conda AG on the digitalization of its shares, allowing the registered shares to be managed via blockchain technology. The project represented the first-ever digitalization of shares linked to digital tokens in an Austrian joint stock company. The tokens were digital units that were mined exclusively by Conda on a blockchain (dis-tributed ledger technology) protocol and then given to company shareholders. When a shareholder trans-fers a token to another person, the transfer is recorded in the blockchain and, on that basis, the transfer is also registered in Conda’s share ledger. The transfer of a token is thus the equivalent of a share transfer.

Technology is part of our lives. And technological development leaves its mark on our lifestyle. We saw that in our own homes when we gave up our traditional landlines and used the fixed broadband Internet connection instead, at higher and higher speeds. We see that when exploring the ever-expanding features and options of our mobile handsets. We also see that while viewing high definition programs or when accessing digital interactive services through our TV sets, and when faced with the option of placing calls using traditional services or through new applications. We can see the technological development when rural areas have access to electronic communications and are thus able to reap the benefits of the digital economy.

What did the GDPR bring us? “A lot of compliance work,” most clients would say, after months of tough and challenging work implementing the European Union’s new comprehensive data protection regulation. And in many cases that work is still unfinished. The prevalent view on the market is that the regulation is an artificial creation of another compliance requirement upon data controllers. But is it fair to say that the GDPR brought nothing but a very expensive compliance exercise?

In Slovakia, a new amendment to Act No. 152/1995 Coll. on foodstuffs has been adopted, introducing new rules on how supermarkets ought to promote grocery products. According to the newly-adopted legislation, supermarkets and other sellers who promote grocery products are required to ensure that at least 50% of these promoted products are of Slovak origin. The new rules apply to online as well as classical forms of marketing.