Contributed by DLA Piper.

In recent years, the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has been extremely active in tackling highly interesting and novel issues in the digital world. The GVH commissioned a pioneer study on the importance of data in e-commerce and brought several decisions against major international players such as booking.com (for using so-classed “dark patterns”) or Apple (for using misleading terms and conditions about its Wi-Fi assistant on iPhones) as well as significant CEE players such as eMag (for misleading promotions on its online marketplace) or Alza (for aggressive commercial practices on its online site). Most of the decisions – especially where large fines were involved – have been challenged before courts, with the most recent high-level judgment coming out in the Facebook case. What happened exactly?

In the past few years, Hungary has witnessed accelerated merger trends in the fields of TMT, healthcare, and energy, among others. We reached out to several competition lawyers and spoke about Hungarian merger control regulations and the role of the Hungarian Competition Authority (HCA).

Lakatos, Koves and Partners, working alongside Clifford Chance’s Munich office, has advised Egeria Capital Behar BV on the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Isoplus. DLA Piper reportedly advised the sellers on the deal.

Stratulat Albulescu has advised Catalyst Romania Fund II on its participation in the EUR 2 million equity funding round of EdTech platform Adservio.

Screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been present in Hungarian law since 2019 in relation to certain specific investment-related activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, additional FDI screening legislation was introduced in May 2020. The 2020 regime has had an impact on a significantly wider range of business transactions and, therefore, this summary focuses solely on the 2020 regime (FDI Rules). Given that a real estate asset deal may also fall within the scope of the FDI Rules, assessing the potential application of the FDI Rules has become an important item on the real estate due diligence to-do list. Below you will find a summary of the applicable regime based on our experience to this date.

A sound investment requires an understanding of all the risks involved in the transaction. The main objective of real estate financial due diligence is to thoroughly inspect the fundamentals of the property, financing, seller and compliance obligations to be able to reduce and mitigate financial uncertainties.

DLA Piper has announced that former Counsels Andra Trantea and Paula Corban-Pelin have been promoted to Local Partner with the firm’s Romanian office.

EU and Hungarian competition law considerations are also highly relevant in any real estate transaction, especially from a merger control and information exchange perspective.

Former Counsels Agnieszka Lehwark and Bartlomiej Palusiak have been promoted to Partner in DLA Piper's Warsaw office.

DLA Piper has advised the Karlin Group on a joint residential investment in Prague with PPF Real Estate. Kocian Solc Balastik advised PPF.

In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. The question this time: Who was your favorite professor in university and why?

The planned legislation will introduce a screening of foreign direct investments to Slovakia from third countries. The aim of the screening mechanism should be the protection of Slovakia’s security and public order, whereas security and public order in the EU shall also be considered.

DLA Piper has advised the Aareal Bank on providing EUR 360 million senior facility for Pradera European Retail Parks’ international retail property portfolio financing.

The Hungarian Data Protection Authority (Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság, NAIH) has recently published its annual report in which it presented a case where the Authority imposed the highest fine to date of ca. EUR 670,000 (HUF 250 million).

In view of the sustained rise in the prices of electricity and natural gas, the Romanian Government has been under increased pressure to extend the consumers support measures first introduced under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 118/2021 on the establishment of a compensation scheme for the consumption of electricity and natural gas covering the period 1 November 2021 – 31 March 2022, which received Parliamentary approval and further amendments under Law no. 259/2021 (Law 259/2021), as both have further been amended.

Baker McKenzie and DLA Piper have joined the plethora of firms announcing their exit from the Russian market.

On January 18, six leading real estate lawyers in Romania sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea. The conversation focused on the current state of affairs in the real estate sector, looking at who the main players are, the hottest assets, deal-making trends in the sector, and more.