The long-standing dispute between Illumina/GRAIL and the European Commission has now ended. The Court of Justice has set definitive limits on the broad interpretation of Article 22 of Council Regulation No. 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings.

In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court (case no. 27 Cdo 3499/2023) decided that the delivery of a legal act by email to a statutory body of a company is effective from the moment the email reaches the recipient's inbox, even if the recipient has not opened the email or was on vacation at the time.

At the beginning of the week, Apple introduced its latest iPhone 16, which entices customers with the integration of artificial intelligence called "Apple Intelligence."

It can be interesting to examine how other countries address anti-competitive agreements. The European trend is certainly moving towards penalising a broader range of cartel behaviour using new tools, rather than relying primarily on leniency applications (self-reporting) as in the past.

In 2022, the Slovak Parliament passed two long-awaited laws, an Act No 201/2022 on construction (hereinafter the “Construction Act”) and an Act No 200/2022 on spatial planning (hereinafter the “Spatial Planning Act”). I wrote about the adoption of these laws and their content in my last article published in CEE Legal Matters. Both laws, which together were intended to bring long-anticipated systemic changes to spatial-planning and building permit procedures in Slovakia, were supposed to take effect on 1 April 2024; however, this never happened.

With preparations for the 2024 CEE Legal Matters Hungary General Counsel Summit in full swing, Pontes' Csaba Polgar talks about the upcoming event and what he's looking forward to the most.

You may have noticed that there has been a discussion about an amendment to the Act on Protection of Competition in recent weeks. If it passes the legislative procedure, what would it mean in practice?

In recent months, Bulgaria has undergone significant changes to its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation intending to achieve the long-overdue complete transposition of the EU 2018/843 Directive into national law and meeting the higher standards set forth in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations on Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), especially following the country’s inclusion in FATF’s so-called “grey list” of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.  Naturally, these changes give rise to a number of new obligations for businesses to comply with. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the most significant changes.

This article follows up on the article in the previous issue titled "Transformative Legal Changes: Slovakia's New Transformations Landscape" where colleagues outlined the permissible changes in legal form in the Slovak Republic.

Peter Ruff was appointed to Partner at Pontes Budapest, where he will lead the corporate, M&A, private equity, and venture capital practices of the firm.

Have you noticed the latest development in the placement of behavioural advertising? You have basically a binary choice between consenting to the processing of a "complex" bundle of your personal data for behavioural advertising purposes or paying a fee. After paying the fee, you can use the platform without being targeted by behavioural advertising.

A popular practice among consumers under the age of 30 is to purposely search for better-value alternatives to items from well-known brands. Started to gain followers on social media, this idea has become a phenomenon, with entrepreneurs setting up e-stores, boldly claiming to sell dupes (short for "duplicates"). Others sell their own products "inspired" by current trends. And while supply is generally justified by demand, it raises the question of whether duplicates are an innocent more affordable alternative or an unfair profiting on the back of another. Public opinion is divided, but we are going to examine what the law says.

The Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Bulgaria recognized under "exceptional circumstances," the right of an active partner in a limited liability company to act as an ad hoc representative. This decision references to Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECPHRFF) and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

As we outlined in our earlier article, the option of a demerger by means of a spin-off (odštiepenie) is a significant innovation introduced into the Slovak corporate landscape by the Transformations Act.

1 March 2024 marks the date when the Transformations Act No. 309/2023 came into force in Slovakia. This regulation comprehensively outlines the procedures for national and cross-border mergers, divisions, and conversions of companies and cooperatives, moving away from the previously scattered provisions in the Commercial Code.

A long-awaited amendment to the Czech Medicines Act came into force on 1 January 2024. What practical impact will it have?

Last year's "digital amendment" introduced many changes to Czech corporate law. But one change that is often overlooked is the amendment to the Czech Public Registry Act.

There has been much discussion about protracted shortages of critical medicines in the Czech Republic over the last couple of months. Many national measures have been adopted. At the European Union level,the Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism for medicines has been put in place.