10 Jun 2021

The Status of Influencers in North Macedonia

The imaginary familiarity with a famous person through platforms such as Instagram is more common when the other party is a so-called influencer – a person that enjoys appreciation of a large number of users due to their reputation.  The imaginary closeness is, on the other hand, a very powerful tool in hands of influencers as users often aspire to emulate their lifestyle.  However, the lifestyle the influencer presents is not always genuine as the content presented often includes (some form of) promotion.  When an influencer shows on their profile that they use a certain product, there is a great […]

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08 Jun 2021

Ognjen Colić Discusses Local Projects at 4th Serbian PPP Conference

Ognjen Colić, head of Gecić Law’s corporate practice, spoke at the 4th Serbian Public Private Partnership Conference, a hybrid event held today, organized under the auspices of the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the British Embassy in Belgrade, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure of the Republic of Serbia. Opening remarks were delivered by several high government officials and experts, including Tomislav Momirovic, Minister of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure and Andjelka Atanackovic, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Serbia.  Besides high government officials, developers, contractors and service providers engaged in public-private partnerships also attended […]

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07 Jun 2021

Amazon Wins Major Tax Battle Against EU

The EU’s second-highest court sided with Amazon.com (“Amazon”) recently, saying it did not owe millions to Luxembourg in unpaid taxes.  On May 12, 2021, the General Court (“Court”) overturned the European Commission’s (“Commission”) order to Amazon to pay EUR 250 million to Luxembourg, as reimbursement of illegal State aid. The Court held that the European Commission’s primary finding of an alleged advantage was based on an incorrect analysis.  Precisely, the Court argued that none of the findings set out by the Commission in the contested decision were sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an advantage for the purposes of Article […]

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03 Jun 2021

A Snitch in the Cartel – the Leniency Program

Business cartels between competing market participants are designed to limit or eliminate competition between them, with the objective of increasing prices and profit of the cartel members.  In practice, this is generally achieved by fixing prices, market sharing, limiting output, allocating customers or territories, bid-rigging, or a combination of the above.  Cartels are harmful to consumers and society as a whole since the participating businesses charge higher prices (and earn higher profits) than would be the case in a competitive market. Because of their negative impact on the market, competition legislation fights against cartels, imposing substantial fines on participants, which […]

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31 May 2021

The status of influencers in Bosnia & Herzegovina

Legal Framework for the so-called influencing  To say that there is no special advertising act in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BiH”) is not completely true.  Namely, certain forms of (illegal) advertising are regulated by the Prohibited Advertising Act.  This Act regulates the protection of merchants from illicit advertising, the protection of procedures and determines forms of illicit advertising.  On the other hand, advertising as such is regulated indirectly at the level of the Federation. In this regard, the Consumer Protection Act is applicable, considering that BiH is one of few European countries that has neither a media act nor an electronic […]

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28 May 2021

EU and Japan create Green Alliance to fight climate change

The European Union (“EU”) and Japan created a Green Alliance and issued a document on May 27 that defines their joint goals on climate change.  They committed to green growth and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, reaffirming their commitment to the Paris Agreement. The creation of the alliance comes ahead of the UN climate conference in Glasgow in November. The event should define the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In the meantime, the EU and Japan have promised to promote green economy goals. They noted that they will help developing nations transition to low-carbon energy use. The two sides also […]

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27 May 2021

Global Corporate Tax (R)evolution

Joe Biden’s first big clash with the largest businesses in the US came as a result of his proposal to increase corporate tax and raised quite a few eyebrows.  Although Corporate America initially welcomed the massive government spending plan, it later expressed genuine concerns on the topic.  International corporate taxation has long presented a challenge for tax authorities worldwide, causing them losses in billions of tax dollars.  The US has been one of the largest backers of negotiations on a large-scale reform of international corporate taxation that have been going on for quite some time. However, an agreement is yet […]

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26 May 2021

Gecić Law’s website honored for the sixth year in a row

We are delighted to reveal that Gecić Law’s website continues to attract the attention of professionals globally as it has been recognized by several prestigious rankings.  Our website was positioned, for the sixth consecutive year, among the top-ranked Global law firm websites for 2021 in a selection of 23 law firm websites across the world. This prestigious ranking, published by Comrade, a leading US digital marketing network, puts us side by side with the world-class law firm Axiom among others. In another ranking of legal websites worldwide, Astra, a leading web design business, placed the Gecić Law website among the best legal websites globally. Furthermore, […]

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24 May 2021

Influencers in the Western Balkans – Croatia

Influencer marketing is a fast-growing discipline, and the number of influencers is growing every day in our region.  Like Serbia, Croatia is also “fertile ground” for influencer marketing and numerous extremely “influential influencers”.  Testimonies of many, both “micro” and “macro” influencers from Croatia, demonstrate that this indeed amounts to a full-time job. So, how does one hire an influencer?  In a nutshell, after “becoming famous”, influencers receive offers to promote various products and services on a daily basis, but how is this activity legally regulated in Croatia? Stay tuned, as we discuss below in greater detail the legal position of […]

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21 May 2021

Bogdan Gecić Discusses Customer Service and ROI in Forbes

Bogdan Gecić, Managing Partner at Gecić Law, was quoted in Forbes, the leading global business publication, in an article titled “10 Important Customer Service Metrics To Help You Better Understand Your ROI”. Bogdan was asked to join a panel of experts and share his perspective on the best approach to client relations in relation to ROI from the point of view of an eminent entrepreneur in the legal and professional services industry. “In professional services, customer service is of such importance that its returns seem to be close to the overall ROI of our business. This may be hard to […]

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