Kyriakides Georgopoulos has advised CBE Capital and a consortium of sponsors on the EUR 95 million financing from Piraeus Bank for the development of the Six Senses Hotel and branded residences in Porto Heli, Greece.

Rymarz Zdort Maruta, working with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Barnea Jaffa Lande, has advised Huuuge on the execution of a simple agreement for future equity and a call option deed agreement with an undisclosed Israeli mobile game company and its existing investors.

MPR Partners has advised Bucharest-based mining company Verde Magnesium on its successful bid in the public tender organized by the National Agency for Mineral Resources of Romania for concession rights on a magnesium mining perimeter in Western Romania.

Dentons and Gessel have advised the founders of Profitroom and the Cyber_Folks company respectively on the agreement to sell a 65% stake in Profitroom to the MCI Capital ASI SA fund. Dubinski Jelenski Masiarz reportedly advised the buyer.

TGS Baltic, working with Hannes Snellman, has advised Accel-KKR on its majority equity investment in the Aico Group.

WKB Lawyers has advised Dino Polska on its USD 15.5 million acquisition of eZebra and its affiliates providing warehousing, storage, and shipping services for the company. Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka advised the founders of eZebra.

MFW Fialek has advised the Play Group on its acquisition of Polish telecommunications company Miconet. MJH Moskwa Jarmul Haladyj reportedly advised Miconet.

Belgrade's MPartners Legal, working with Perth's Steinepreis Paganin and Bird & Bird in London, has advised Ibaera Capital Fund subsidiary ISIHC on the sale of the Rogozna Gold Project in Serbia to Strickland Metals Limited for a consideration of AUD 34.2 million in shares.

SSW Pragmatic Solutions has advised Grupa Energa on its acquisition of a photovoltaic portfolio from Lightsource BP. Norton Rose Fulbright advised Lightsource BP.

Kinstellar has advised Wizz Air on the lease agreement for its new office headquarters in Budapest's Millennium Tower.

Clifford Chance, working with Jalsovszky, has advised a club of banks led by Ceska Sporitelna on the financing for CVC Capital Partners and Emma Capital's acquisition of Packeta (reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 9, 2024). Wolf Theiss advised Packeta.

Djingov Gouginski Kyutchukov & Velichkov has advised Bulgarian Stock Exchange-listed Bianor Holding on a capital increase through a share issuance that attracted 199 investors, including several institutional investors.

Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling have announced the appointment of David Foster as the new Regional Managing Partner for the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa for the combined A&O Shearman firm, starting May 1, 2024. He will serve an initial term of two years.

Ibrahimovic & Co has launched a German Desk to support companies wishing to establish, expand, or consolidate their activities in German-speaking countries. The German Desk will be co-led by Partner Nadin Kantic and Attorney at Law Tomislav Tomas.

Effective April 2024, former LCF Law Group Partner and Head of International Arbitration Yuliya Atamanova has joined JSC CB PrivatBank as a Legal Counsel and the head of the bank's International Arbitration and Cross-Border Litigation Department.

Former CMS Partner Anna Pogrebna has joined Integrites as a Partner to focus on real estate, construction, and infrastructure, while Mykola Nychyporuk has joined the firm as a Counsel and the Head of its White-Collar Crime practice.

Former Soltysinski Kawecki & Szlezak Senior Counsel Szymon Czerwinski has joined Schoenherr in Poland as a Partner to lead the firm's Tax team.

The most recent promotion round at CMS saw 54 lawyers promoted to the firm's partnership ranks, including Austria-based Daniela Kroemer, David Kohl, Florian Mayer, Kai Ruckelshausen, Lukas Peissl, Marlene Wimmer-Nistelberger, and Sonja Otenhajmer, Bulgaria-based Jenia Dimitrova, Hungary-based Agnes Solyom, Eszter Torok, and Katalin Horvath, and Poland-based Tomasz Sancewicz.

Christoph Gaar and Roman Gietler have been promoted to Partner positions with Mueller Partner Rechtsanwaelte in Vienna.

PwC Legal Polska has established a Pharma and Life Sciences practice with Counsels Anna Wilkowska and Maciej Huzior joining the firm to co-lead the new department.

Partners Janusz Dzianachowski and Marcin Schulz have become the new National Managing Partners at Linklaters Warsaw, taking over from Artur Kulawski, who has been at the firm's helm for the past 12 years.

Estonian law firm Lextal, Latvian law firm RER Lextal, and Lithuanian law firm ILAW Lextal have unveiled their new name and identity: Widen, "a Baltic law firm that sees itself as the Legal Jazz Company."

Former Senior Legal Counsel Can Aksoy has been appointed as Delivery Hero's Principal Legal Counsel M&A.

Former Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi Head of Legal Advisory Mehmet Tekergul has moved to the Alternatif Bank as Head of Legal.

In the ever-evolving landscape of legal technology, two notable players, SauLM-7B, and Harvey AI, have emerged with the aim of revolutionizing legal assistance through artificial intelligence. SauLM-7B and Harvey AI compete for prominence in the legal tech arena, their names both carrying a subtle nod to the realm of popular TV series – from Saul Goodman's legal antics in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to Harvey Specter's suave maneuvers in Suits.

Recently, Law No 414/2023 on the conduct of representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers (hereinafter Law 414/2023 or the Law), transposing Directive 2020/1828/EU on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC (hereinafter Directive 2020/1828), entered into force.

Convenience fee is the part of our everyday life that seems to be a usually small but inconvenient price to pay for shopping online. But is it indeed a necessity? The Prosecution Service of Hungary intends to find out exactly that.

Following the development of the EU legislation and reflecting market needs and increasing interest in trading with guarantees of origin, the Bulgaria’s Ministry of Energy adopted new Ordinance No. Е-РД-04-2 of 2 April 2024 on guarantees of origin of energy from renewable sources. The new Ordinance was promulgated in State Gazette No. 32 on 9 April 2024.

As technology advances, it becomes easier and easier to record any conversation. Today, anyone with a smartphone can easily record business meetings - even in secret. There are many reasons for making a secret recording: for some it may be a security measure to avoid disputes, for others it may be an ulterior motive to use it later. But is it legally permissible to make an audio recording in secret? And what are the consequences of using a secretly made audio recording in a civil or criminal case?

On 15 February 2024, the Albanian Parliament adopted law no. 18/2024 “On some amendments and addendums on law no. 155/2015 ‘On gambling in the Republic of Albania’, as amended” (the “Gambling Law”). The amendment overturned a five-year ban on sports betting activities in Albania and entered into force on 27 March 2024.

Based on a Hungarian case, on 14 March 2024 the Court of Justice ruled that the supervisory authority of a Member State, to ensure that the GDPR is fully enforced, may order the erasure of unlawfully processed data even if prior request by the data subject has not been submitted. Such erasure may cover data collected from the affected person and data originating from another source.

The reasoning behind the draft laws not included in the laws those provisions from the EU regulations that can be applied only by the member states of the European Union, as well as those that prescribe obligations only for the member states, is questionable.

For several years, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) standards have increased globally, the EU being a pioneer in the field through the adoption of a significant number of directives and regulations subsequently implemented at Member States’ national level in relation to these three most dynamic letters in today’s business world.

On 2 April 2024, a new bill was submitted to the Hungarian Parliament. Among other judicial system-related acts, the proposal aims to amend our Competition Act. The bill establishes the concept of ‘undertaking of fundamental importance’ (in Hungarian: “alapvető jelentőségű vállalkozás”) and gives new powers for the Competition Authority (HCA) in respect of these undertakings.

The National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) published its 2024 audit plan on 26 March 2024, which shows that it plans to carry out more rigorous audits this year than in recent years.

To facilitate easier obtaining of residence and work permits, due to the increasing influx of foreigners coming to live and work in the Republic of Serbia, new amendments were made to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Employment of Foreigners in 2023. As a result of these legal amendments, there was a need to adopt new bylaws that would comply with the latest changes.