Karanovic & Partners has advised the Innovation Fund on launching the Katapult start-up accelerator in Serbia with support from the World Bank.

The Labour Law (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 24/2005, 61/2005, 54/2009, 32/2013, 75/2014, 13/2017 – decision of the CC, 113/2017 and 95/2018 – authentic interpretation) (the “Law”) prescribes that employer shall be obliged, prior to the termination of employment agreement due to violation of working obligation or working discipline, to notify the employee in writing on the existence of reasons for such termination, as well as to provide the employee with a period of minimum eight days from the warning submission to declare on the subject allegations. Employer is obliged to state grounds for termination in the warning, as well as facts and evidence indicating the fulfilment of requirements for termination, and deadline for submitting the employee’s response thereof.

The OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (IF) has agreed on 8 October 2021 a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. The Republic of Serbia is one of 136 jurisdictions that have agreed to the solution.

Jankovic Popovic Mitic has successfully represented Lithuanian company Alita before the Supreme Court of Cassation of Serbia in a dispute with the Serbian Privatization Agency over a terminated privatization contract.

NKO Partners and Lovric Novokmet Smrcek have advised French Conforama on the sale of furniture and appliance company Emmezeta and subsidiary Emma Real Estate to Poland's Merkury Market. Marohnic, Tomek & Gjoic advised LCN Capital Partners on the sale of a related real estate portfolio. Glinska & Miskovic, Samardzic Oreski & Grbovic, and Brzozowska & Barwinska advised the buyer.

The Law on Prevention of Corruption (the “Law”), the key piece of Serbian anti-corruption legislation that started to apply in September 2020, recently received a short set of amendments.

How certain is the development of the ever-increasing use and application of electronic documents, especially in terms of legalization of documents for international legal transactions?

Damjan Despotovic, Marina Nikolic, Milorad Glavan, and Srecko Vujakovic have established DNGV Attorneys in Belgrade.

Gecic Law has launched an Environmental, Social & Governance Practice.

The Ministry of Health passed a new bylaw within the health care system. The Rulebook on Forms in Health Care System was published in the Official Gazette of RS no. 31/2021 on March 31, 2021, and entered into force on April 8, 2021 (the “Rulebook”).

Former Schoenherr Partner Petar Kojdic has joined Kinstellar as a Partner and Head of the firm’s Banking & Finance practice in Belgrade.

The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated ex officio antitrust proceedings against Atlantic Group, Atlantic Brands and Strauss Adriatic and conducted dawn raids, in order to investigate potential existence of restrictive agreements.

Doklestic Repic & Gajin has advised the Czech Pronatal Group on establishing a gynecology hospital in Belgrade.

On 6 September 2021, the Competition Commission (the “Commission”) has initiated a formal procedure against company MAT – Real Estate for potential gun-jumping. The transaction concerned involves the acquisition of company Radijator d.o.o., a distributor of plumbing and heating equipment.

Not so long ago (12 years!) Serbia adopted the amendments to the Agricultural Land Act which was supposed to allow the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, mainly to support the growing renewable energy sector. Of course, this was conditioned with adopting an adequate Regulation by the Serbian Government, which everyone waited for since 2009. Finally, patience paid off and in July 2021, the Serbian Government adopted the Regulation on the conditions, manner and procedure for giving state-owned agricultural land for use for non-agricultural purposes (hereinafter: “Regulation”).

Application of the Law on Fiscalization (Official Gazette of RS no. 153/2020) (“the Law”), that we have discussed before, which has repealed Serbian Law on Fiscal Cash Registers (Official Gazette of RS no. 135/04 and 93/12) by entering into force on December 29, 2020, will start on January 1, 2022 (except for several provisions that have already started to apply, on the day of entry into force). The regulation concerned, along with the set of by-laws enacted for its implementation, introduces a completely new model of fiscalization, which – among other things – implies a wider circle of taxpayers who will be obliged to apply it, new rules regarding the characteristics of fiscal cash registers and fiscal receipts, as well as certain subsidies for the entities covered by fiscalization.

Dentons has advised SPI International shareholders Loni Farhi and Berk Uziyel on the sale of a 70% stake in the company to Canal+. Rymarz Zdort advised the buyer.

Harrisons has advised the EBRD on a EUR 10 million senior secured loan for the Umka Cardboard Mill, a recycled cardboard manufacturer in the Western Balkans region.