Russian invasion on Ukraine from 24 February 2022 has brought far-reaching consequences for lives of ordinary people, for international politics and for businesses. This unprecedented act of aggression was met with strong response from the international community. Words of condemnation were quickly followed by introducing some more tangible solutions – economic sanctions imposed on Russia itself and persons companies and institutions known to be Vladimir Putin’s close co-operators. International companies cut their ties with Russian businesses and limited the number of products imported from there.

From February 24, 2022, under martial law, the banking system operates in a special mode.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) released its judgement in Case C-333/20 Berlin Chemie on 7 April 2022. This extremely important ruling might mark the turning point in the controversial VAT fixed establishment topic. Although numerous European courts had already passed decisions on this issue, the approach taken by tax authorities in many EU Member States, including Romania, have been aggressive and inconsistent, with significant tax assessments made against companies mainly due to uncertainties in the existing legislation.

The first article of our own REMIT series is available here. It provides an overview of the REMIT core concepts, including the novelties brought under the latest edition of the ACER Guidance published on 22 July 2021 and the main conclusions of the 2021 REMIT Forum. This second article of our REMIT series presents (i) a more detailed analysis of REMIT in Romania, (ii) a practical perspective on the sanctioning regime applied by various NRAs, including the Romanian NRA, and (iii) the overall conclusions of our analysis.

On 30 March 2022, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC“) adopted the guidelines on the merger control procedure during the time of the martial law in Ukraine (the “Guidelines“).

Avellum, April 12, 2022: Today the whole world is witnessing unheard brutality and cynicism of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. The war that Russia started targets not only military facilities in Ukraine, but civil objects, hospitals, schools, residential, and office buildings. The mass genocide of Ukrainians has intensified, Russian invaders no longer even try to conceal their atrocities against civilians and carry them out in front of the entire world.

The phrase "between husband and wife" in Article 278/3 of the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Code No. 2004 [“BEC”] was annulled by the Constitutional Court on March 22, 2022. The annulment will take effect 9 months after its publication, on December 22, 2022.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a military aggression against Ukraine. This became the basis for the imposition of the martial law in Ukraine from 24 February 2022, with further extension until 26 April 2022.

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).

An interesting case occurred before a while in Norway, when the authority competent for personal data protection was subject to complaint for infringement of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”).

Law 72/2022 on the enforcement of a tax amnesty for tax liabilities, including interest and penalties for late payment, imposed by the tax authorities following the reclassification of daily allowances as salary, was published in the Official Gazette on 31 March based on a bill submitted in September 2021.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on Conditions and Criteria on Harmonized State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy Sector (“Official gazette of the RS” no. 99/2021, hereinafter referred to as: “Regulation”).

24 March 2022, Law of Ukraine "On Arrangement of Labour Relations under Martial Law" No. 2136-ІХ dated 15 March 2022 (the Law) entered into force.

Romania is a European Union member state located in the south-eastern part of Europe, with a surface of 38,397 square kilometres and a population of 19.41 million. Romania is positioned in the vicinity of several large markets, including the European Union, the CIS states and the Middle East, and is crossed by three pan-European transport corridors: no. 4 linking Europe from West to East, no. 9 from North to South and no. 7 facilitating inland water transportation on the Danube.

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.

On March 4, 2022 the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) published the Communiqué No. 2022/2 on the Amendment of Communiqué No. 2010/4 on the Mergers and Acquisitions Subject to the Approval of the Competition Board (“Amendment Communiqué”). The Amendment Communiqué introduces certain new regulations concerning the Turkish merger control regime, which will fundamentally affect the notifiabiliy analysis of the transactions and the merger control notifications submitted to the Authority.

One of Ukraine’s legal responses to Russia’s full-scale aggression was a legislative initiative aimed to confiscate the property of the aggressor state. On 3 March, the Ukrainian Parliament put this initiative into practice by adopting the Law of Ukraine “On Basic Principles of Confiscation of Property Held in Ukraine by the Russian Federation and its Residents” (“Law”), and on 10 March, the Law was signed by the President.

Recently, the Serbian Parliament has adopted new Law on Innovation Activity. This Law is a part of the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development for the period from 2021 to 2025, whose basic motto is "The Power of Knowledge", which was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia last year. Serbian digital community welcomed the adoption of the mentioned law, bearing in mind that the digitalization of the domestic economy has reached its peak in recent years, which was significantly contributed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the above, the Serbian startup ecosystem was recognized as “the most promising one” according to the report of the "Start-up Genome" (an organization specialized in following and reporting about worldwide Start up ecosystems). As the report states, the reason for this is quality professional staff and favorable tax treatment.