Recently, there have been certain significant developments regarding the data protection practice and some important guidelines have been published by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority. Below is an overview on the important points of the relevant developments.
Publishing Personal Data without Consent of a Data Subject
The Spanish personal data protection authority has recently fined a natural person with EUR 10,000.00 for publishing personal data of a third person without the latter’s consent on an online blog.
Significant Amendments to the Distance Contracts Regulation in Turkey
With the Regulation Amending the Distance Contracts Regulation [“Amendment Regulation”] published on the Official Gazette on 23 August 2022, many amendments were introduced to the Distance Contracts Regulation [the “Regulation”] published on the Official Gazette numbered 29188 and dated 27 November 2014. Many of these amendments aim to provide harmonisation with the amended Law no.6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce [the “Law”] on 7 July 2022, and to regulate the liabilities of intermediary service providers in a comprehensive manner.
Are NFTs Subject to VAT?
According to its latest ruling, the Spanish tax authority certainly considers so. However, the recent boom in the popularity of NFTs poses more questions than answers from the perspective of indirect taxes.
Electricity Generation in Turkey
Electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and trade are considered public services by court decisions. The liberal economy policies enforced following the entry into force of the 1982 Constitution also find their place in the electricity market. Accordingly, providing the public services via civil law contracts was made possible with the amendments to the Turkish Constitution in 1999.
Romania: Significant Amendments Regarding Employment Relationships
Law no. 53/2003 - Labour Code (the “Labour Code”) will be amended by Law no. 283/ 2022 for amending and supplementing Law no. 53/2003, as well as by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2019 regarding the Administrative Code, which was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 1013 of 19.10.2022 (“Law 283/ 2022”).
Incentives for Employment of New Residents in Serbia
On 18 June 2022, the Regulation on Criteria for Awarding Incentives to Employers who Employ New Residents in the Republic of Serbia, published in the Off. Gazette of RS no. 67/2022 (“the Regulation”), entered into force.
Curia’s Clarification on Working Time Records
According to the Hungarian Labor Code, employers shall keep records of the durations of regular working time and overtime, standby duty, periods of leave and overtime work performed. The working time records should be updated on a daily basis and should contain facilities to identify the time of commencement and end of any regular and overtime work and standby duty. Records of the durations of regular working time and overtime may be maintained in the form of verifying the work schedule made out in writing at the end of the month, updated on a daily basis. The Labor Code, however, does not address the question where the working time records should be physically stored.
Anti-corruption Authority to Be Set up in Hungary
The Hungarian Parliament passed a law at the beginning of October 2022 to set up a new anti-corruption authority called “Integrity Authority” as a part of a legislative package, that was aimed to reach a compromise with the EU regarding the withholding of funds.
Turkey: Recent Amendments to Press, Social Media and Internet News Sites
Discussions on the Law on the Amendment to the Press Law and Some Laws" which is known as the Law on Combating Disinformation among the public and which includes regulations and amendments about social media and internet news sites (“Law Amendment”), was published in the Official Gazette dated 18.10.2022 and numbered 31987.
Austria: The (new) Copyright Contract Law
The Amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act fundamentally revised the Copyright contract law. An entire series of new provisions for the protection of authors was implemented. But what does this mean for (future) license holders? Let us take a look!
Turkish Law of Transportation Series – II: Criteria for Application of the CMR Convention
Nowadays, the importance of international transportation and logistics activities has increased since the commercial relations surpassed the national borders. The most common type of carriage of goods is undoubtedly the road transportation. As a matter of fact, 76.1% of goods are transported by road in Turkey, 69.5% in the USA and 45% in Europe. Taking this into account, to determine common standards between the states regarding the documents used in carriage of goods by road and the responsibility of the carrier, “Convention on The Contract For The International Carriage Of Goods By Road” (Convention Relative Au Contrat De Transport İnternational Per Marchandises Par Route) [“CMR”] was adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1956, and was entered into force in 1961. The CMR, to which Turkey became a party with a reservation on Article 47 on October 31, 1995, has the force of law in the Turkish legal system.
Local Business Tax Can be Paid in Euros and US Dollars
According to a new government decree published in the Hungarian Gazette on 26 September 2022, taxpayers can pay their local business tax advance and local business tax from 1 January 2023 by transferring the amount in euro or US dollars. Taxpayers belonging to a special economic zone can pay the local business tax to the account opened for this purpose by the National Tax and Customs Authority.
New Advertising Regime for Medical Devices in Poland
The adoption of the Regulation (EU) 2017/745 on medical devices (MDR) and the Regulation (EU) 2017/746 on in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVDR) triggered changes in the medical devices law on the national level in Poland. The new Polish Medical Devices Act of 7 April 2022 (MDA) stipulates entirely new restrictions to advertising of medical devices (Articles 54-61) that were previously unknown to this industry sector and heavy sanctions for infringements of the new rules (Articles 103 and 104).
Finalizing the Legal Framework for Easier Construction of Renewable Energy Facilities
The Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning, and Urbanism of Montenegro („Ministry“) enacted a Rulebook on closer criteria for the assessment of requests for the issuance of urbanistic-technical conditions for the construction of facilities for the production of electricity from renewable sources of the sun and other renewable sources (“Rulebook”). The Rulebook entered into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of Montenegro, i.e., on 12 October 2022.
Implications of the Amendment to Romanian Companies Law No 31/1990 and the Trade Registry’s Laws on Establishing and Operating Companies
Law No 265/2022 on the Trade Registry and on the amendment and completion of other acts of law affecting the registration with the Trade Registry (“Law No. 265/2022”) was published in the Romanian Official Gazette on 26 July 2022 and will enter into force on 26 November 2022.
Bulgarian Post and the Hacker Attacks – the Elephant in the Room
In April this year the information systems of "Bulgarian Post" became the subject of a serious cyber-attack. The Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) imposed a fine of BGN 1 million (approx. EURO 511.292) and after a 3-month inspection found that the company neglected cyber security and no measures were taken to protect users' data. There was no analysis that would lead to a proper implementation of organizational measures for the protection of data electronically. After the encryption of the data of 680,000 individuals, personal names, social security numbers, and information about personal cards were leaked. The amounts of money that the employees received, as well as their bank accounts, are available. Sensitive data on the age and health status of employees, as well as emails of the company's customers, were also accessed.
Ukraine – Headliner of Crypto Industry Boom
Ukraine remains at the forefront of crypto industry despite overall economic hardship caused by the unprovoked Russian military aggression. According to the recent 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index revealed by Chainalysis, Ukraine has the highest crypto adoption rate in Europe and ranks third globally.