Building on our CBAM series, we can now report that the CBAM was adopted by the EU Parliament (“Parliament”) on June 22, 2022. The next step is the EU Council approval (“Council”). Even though there are still some differences regarding the approach between the Parliament and the Council, it is assumed that their shared vision of the overall goals will be decisive in finding a compromise on regulation introducing CBAM. Back in 2005, the EU established the EU Emissions Trading System (“ETS”), which has since become a cornerstone of the EU’s climate change policy and its most important tool for reducing […]
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Today in Brussels, the EU parliament, EU governments and the European Commission will try to agree on uniform rules for corporate reporting on environmental, governance and social standards (ESG). This will be the last time that the lawmakers meet to confirm the new reporting rules. Pascal Durand, the lead negotiator for the European parliament, stated ahead of the meeting: “If we strike a deal tonight, the EU will set the tone of the global conversation on sustainable standards for the company of the 21st century.” This highlights the importance of the new uniform reporting rules for the companies, and as […]
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Bogdan Gecić, the Founder and Managing Partner at Gecić Law, was quoted in Forbes, the leading global business publication, in an article titled “Nine Ways To Support An Average Or Low-Performing Employee”. Bogdan was asked to join a panel of experts and share his perspective on the best ways to help associates improve their performance. “A leader must be mindful of at least two things: One is that each member of the team is unique and complex in their own way and, therefore, requires a tailored approach to perform at their best. The other is that we must learn to […]
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In January 2018, the European Commission (Commission) imposed on Qualcomm, a US chipsets company, a fine of close to €1 billion for abuse of dominance from February 2011 to September 2016. The Commission found the company liable for prompting Apple to conclude agreements with incentive payments and make it exclusively bound by Qualcomm’s LTE chipsets to be incorporated into their devices. This had, ultimately, led to anticompetitive effects on the relevant market. Qualcomm challenged the decision which was annulled in its entirety on June 15, 2022, by the General Court of the EU (Court) for two reasons – procedural irregularities […]
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On June 17, 2022, the Council of the Serbian Competition Authority (“Council“) adopted the proposal of the Model Program for Business Compliance with the Competition Rules (“Model Program”), in order to help the undertakings in developing their own compliance programs. In that sense, the Council points out that the Model Program represents only an example and a proposal to the undertakings, and that each compliance program should be made in accordance with the specific needs of a certain undertaking, as well as adjusted with the markets on which a particular company operates. The aim of the Model Program is to assist undertakings […]
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In this edition of our series dedicated to our esteemed colleagues who were recognized in this year’s The Legal 500 EMEA rankings, we bring you our founder and managing partner Bogdan Gecić. After being recognized by The Legal 500 as a Leading Individual in Competition for seven consecutive years, in this year’s rankings, Bogdan was especially honored by being amongst the distinguished few to be inducted into the elite global directory’s newly established EMEA Hall of Fame category, which highlights the law firm partners who are at the pinnacle of the profession having received constant praise by their clients for continued […]
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The first post-covid Global Meeting of the elite global legal alliance TerraLex was last week’s highlight as lawyers from 180 member law firms from across the globe gathered in Oslo. Delegates had the opportunity to learn, collaborate and network with their colleagues in a unique series of activities and a relaxed collegial atmosphere. The Gecić Law team took to the center stage, as for the first time the alliance built its annual meeting around a single theme, choosing one of the hottest topics in the legal world today – ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance. The gathering took a multifaceted approach […]
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Collusive tendering or bid rigging is an illegal activity by which bidders create the illusion of competition while secretly agreeing among themselves which of them will win the tender. By choosing the best price, the purchasers, who are frequently national and local governments, are forced to pay more than they would otherwise pay in conditions of fair competition. Bid rigging is one of the most severe competition law infringements which causes damage to taxpayers given that public procurement participates to a substantial extent in the economy of each country. It typically accounts for 12% of the gross domestic product, which […]
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Six months after the last summit in Tirana, high-ranking officials from Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia gathered again in Ohrid as a part of the Open Balkans Initiative. This summit was also attended by the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement of the European Union, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, indicating that the EU fully supports the Open Balkans Initiative, and signals that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro could soon become part of the Initiative. Summit in Ohrid was marked by further expansion of cooperation between Serbia, Albania, and […]
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Serbian Mining and Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic revealed last week an aggressive national climate and energy plan that aims to increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) fivefold to 15% by 2030, reducing dependency on coal and take Serbia into carbon-neutrality by 2050, in line with EU targets. The EUR 35bn plan focuses on solar, wind and hydropower project and is set to mark a fundamental shift that should reshape its energy sector over the coming decades. She said the new energy and mining legislation that came into effect in 2021 is historic in its focus on RES and […]
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