The Budapest Chamber of Commerce (“BCC”) in May 2022 proposed the change of the system of the itemised tax of small businesses (“KATA”). The main goals of the change are to keep the advantages of the system, but also to prevent and eliminate unlawful tax avoidance.

Facial recognition system is considered an artificial intelligence solution empowered by a camera system, which can identify persons viewed based on image data stored in a related data base. Such systems have already been implemented around the globe in many countries and generally faced severe criticism, especially in Western democracies. Naturally, facial recognition systems have the capability of helping to prevent terrorist attacks and similar severe crimes an detect suspects and other persons of interest. In practice, however, such systems often provide inaccurate or biased results.

In 2019, two EU directives were adopted which must be transposed into Hungarian labour law within a short deadline. In order to comply with EU Directive 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions and EU Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers, the modifications of the Labour Code should be adopted by the beginning of August 2022. According to the current information, no substantive work has been started by the Hungarian legislator to modify the Labour Code in order to ensure the compliance with the provisions of the EU Directives.

Significant amendments were introduced into the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Code numbered 2004 ["BEC”] on November 30, 2021. One of these changes was regarding entitling debtors to sell their own seized property by consent.

In addition to its big impact on our social life, WhatsApp messenger (“WhatsApp”) or any other online messaging platform also is used in business life in order for people to communicate quickly and easily. Nowadays, many people are sending work related messages to their colleagues, discuss work related topics, sharing work related documents or conducting their meetings via WhatsApp or any other online messaging platforms.

Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on Criteria for Granting Incentives to the Employers who Employ Newly Inhabited Persons in the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation”),  published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 67/22 and entered into force on 18 June 2022. 

Small and medium-sized enterprises could save tens of billions of forints a year by reducing employment administration, according to the latest proposal by the Ministry of Finance.

Bank guarantees are one of the forms in which economic operators tendering for a public contract may provide, the so-called tender bonds. The new Public Procurement Law, in force since 1 January 2021, has not significantly changed the rules concerning the provision of tender bonds (including bank guarantees) compared to those based on former legislation.

Have you ever wondered whether you can modify a registered community design ("RCD") that is challenged by an application for declaration of invalidity by removing certain prohibited design elements to maintain the registration?

On June 7, 2022, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (“Agency”) published the Draft Guidelines on Packaging Information and Legibility of Foods for Special Medical Purposes (“Legibility Guidelines”) and the Draft Guidelines on New Health Claim Applications (“Application Guidelines”). 

On 7 April 2022, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia published on its website a statement that, at the 5th session of this court, held on the aforesaid date, among other matters, it has determined that the provision of Article 281, paragraph 3. of the Law on Misdemeanours (Off. Gazette of RS no. 65/2013, 13/2016, 98/2016 – the CC decision, 91/2019 and 91/2019 – other law) (“the Law”) is not in accordance with the Constitution and ratified international treaty.

A topic that has recently been the subject of discussion and reflection is the position of trademarks –protected brands used in trade to mark products and services in the Metaverse, with the question of whether such existing trademarks have protection in this new digital market.

Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) is a person overseeing a company’s data protection strategy and implementation in order to ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) requirements. Any company that processes or stores personal data is recommended to appoint a DPO.

Good news for the consumers, but extra work for businesses. From the end of May, shops and webshops are no longer able to round up their discounts by inflating their prices for a short period before the sale. From now on, when announcing discounts, they always have to indicate the previous price of the products, which can only be the lowest price within at least 30 days before the price cut.

Wind power plants and photovoltaic (PV) plants might affect the landscape. To what extent is in the eye of the beholder.

Once upon a time, two eminent Hungarian scientists made a mathematical breakthrough. They developed the first convex, homogeneous, mono-monostatic object, which they named the "Gomboc" after the famous Hungarian folk character. The Gomboc always returns to its single stable equilibrium point no matter how you put it down, without using any weights. The Gomboc also has one unstable equilibrium. It is possible to balance the body in this position, but the slightest disturbance makes it fall.

What kind of coffee do you drink?

On 31 December 2021, Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021 amending Electricity and Natural Gas Law no. 123/2012 and amending certain regulatory acts (“GEO 143/2021”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 1259 and entered into force. GEO 143/2021 is intended to transpose into national law Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU (“Directive 944/2019”).