Harrisons has advised the EBRD on two loans to Erste Bank a.d. Novi Sad – one for EUR 25 million under the Resilience Framework and one for EUR 5 million under the SME Competitiveness Support Programme.

On 2 September 2021 Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced a 225 million euro fine for WhatsApp and ordered the company to amend its practices within three months. It is the largest fine ever from the DPC, and the second-highest under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly brought significant changes not only to the everyday life of citizens but also to the operations of business entities, i.e. to the way of establishing and conducting the work process.

With an interesting legislative pipeline and a full deck of elections announced for next April, Serbia finds itself in a place of opportunity right now, according to PR Legal Partner Milan Petrovic.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted a new Law on Consumer Protection (“Law”) on 09 September 2021. The main reason for adopting the amendments to the current law lies in providing a higher level of consumer protection and trying to apply it more actively, in relation to the Law from 2014 and its subsequent amendments from 2016 and 2018. The most prominent novelty concerns direct marketing by telephone, ie the introduction of the “do not call” register. The “do not call” register is a list of landline and mobile telephone numbers of consumers who do not want to receive calls and / or messages as part of the promotion, marketing and / or sale by telephone.

Vulic Law has advised Italian Serie B football club Lecce in a Falco Case filed against Red Star Belgrade, which was resolved before FIFA’s Football Tribunal.

In general, the Serbian Agricultural Land Act ("ALA") envisages granting the use of agricultural land, free of charge, to state-owned subjects, or, in instances where particular plots have not been leased for three or more agricultural years, agricultural land may be tendered for to be used by registered agricultural holdings.

In the age of digital philosophy, when the electronic management of documents become more and more prominent in both private and public sectors, digitalization of invoices is rather a logical development than an innovative approach in the functioning of the supply chain. Harmonization of e-invoicing regulation in B2G sector has been in effect for seven years in the EU, while Serbia established an e-invoice system in 2019, prescribing mandatory registration of invoices issued in commercial transactions with the public sector on the central registry of invoices (CRF). The most recent novelty in the field happened with adopting the Electronic Invoicing Act and its by-laws when a comprehensive set of rules regulating e-invoicing came into effect.

When it comes to reporting obligation to the National Bank of Serbia (“NBS”), what first comes to mind is the reporting regulated by the Decision on reporting on foreign credit transactions (Official Gazette of RS no. 56/2013, 4/2015 and 42/2020), which is done through commercial banks of reporting obligors.

The Serbian Data Protection Law that was adopted in November 2018 to align Serbia’s data protection laws with the GDPR has now been in force for almost two years (its application commenced nine months after its date of adoption, in August 2019).

SunjkaLaw has advised Novi Sad-based Pin Computers on the sale of the company to Switzerland's Also Holding.

Regional periodical league tables ranking M&A activity through the lens of the law firms advising on the deals are often dominated by Baltic law firms, with the CEELM Index special issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine reflecting the same trend. To better understand why that is so, we spoke with several Partners – from both Baltic firms and other CEE jurisdictions.

Previously Yugoslav (JUS), and now Serbian (SRPS) standards for tobacco and tobacco products, dating back from the sixties and eighties of the 20^th century, are no longer mandatory. Starting from 10 July 2021, manufacturers of tobacco and tobacco products, including cigarettes, are not obliged to place products in the market that meet the requirements established by these standards.

Technological progress has a magnificent impact on everyday business life, and one of the things made possible by it is creating the opportunity for employees to perform work outside their business premises. But although technological progress gave employers the means to operate their business through remote work, the rigidity in incorporating this work model in practice was shaken only after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, making the expansion of remote work models a result of practical necessity. The sudden spread of remote work in companies also brought concerns of legal nature, and questions like what are the best ways to regulate contracts, safety measures etc.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia introduced the newest amendments of the Rulebook on Conditions and Procedure for Public Bidding for Lease/Use of State Owned Agricultural Land, which came into force on 24 June 2021.

AP Legal has advised the founder and sole shareholder of YU PD Express doo Belgrade Ljiljana Zivkovic Karaklajic on the sale of the company to Slovenia Broadbank S.a.r.l. Schonherr reportedly advised Slovenia Broadbank on the deal.

AP Legal, working with CMS’ London office, has advised Raiffeisen Bank International AG and its subsidiary Raiffeisen bank a.d. Belgrade on the acquisition of Credit Agricole Bank Serbia a.d. Novi Sad and its subsidiary CA Leasing Serbia from Credit Agricole S.A. D’Ornano Partners and Maric, Malisic & Dostanic acted as legal advisors to Credit Agricole.

BDK Advokati has advised MediGroup on its acquisition of biochemical laboratories TalijaLab in Serbia.