22 Jul 2020

Gecić Law’s pandemic experience featured in the prestigious The Lawyer magazine

The prestigious magazine The Lawyer featured a story about the experiences of Gecić Law’s team during the pandemic.  The article is part of their “Virus Diaries” series which covers experiences of big law firms across the globe in their struggle to keep their business afloat, clients satisfied and their communities and staff safe in these unusual circumstances.   After providing background on Serbia’s Corporate Law market, remarking that it is “still in its early years“ but that many millennials in senior positions are quickly bringing it in line with global standards, the article covered various innovative ways in which Gecić […]

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20 Jul 2020

Commission Blocks – General Court Unblocks

For some reason May is THE month for competition.  Mays of yesteryear have witnessed many intriguing courtroom battles: May 2016, May 2019 and finally in May 2020. True to form, merger control is making the headlines again.  The General Court (GC) annulled the European Commission’s (Commission) decision in Hutchison 3G UK (Hutchison) and Telefónica UK (Telefónica) merger on May 28, 2020.  If you have not seen it yet, the underlying reason behind the annulment is quite thought-provoking: in a nutshell, the GC held that the Commission made errors in law and manifested errors of assessment, and to boot, infringed essential […]

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16 Jul 2020

Commission Suffers Major Blow in Apple State Aid Case?

General Court brings the curtain down on epic court battle between Apple Ireland and the EU/European Commission in a state aid case labelled the ‘Apple Tax case’. On July 15, 2020, the EU’s General Court overturned the Commission’s decision because the Commission failed to prove Apple had broken competition rules.  Following an in-depth state aid investigation launched in June 2014, the Commission requested information on any rulings granted by Ireland in favour of the Apple Group companies: Apple Operations International (AOI), Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE).  The Commission concluded that two tax rulings issued by Ireland to […]

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01 Jul 2020

Gecić Law contributes to the Serbian chapter of TerraLex Cross-border Guides

Gecić Law is delighted to announce that TerraLex Cross-Border Guides are finally out! It is our great pleasure to be part of such a standout project year after year, alongside other world-class law firms and distinguished TerraLex members, in our joined mission to help create tailored guides on legislation across jurisdictions. In 2020, our Senior Counsel and Head of Corporate / M&A practice Ognjen Colić with contributions from the rest of the team, provided comprehensive and thorough guidance through regulatory framework and development for 5 different industries in Serbia: M&A Mining Labor and Employment Crisis Management Cannabis (soon to be published) […]

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19 Jun 2020

Serbia on the path of adopting the Circular Economy model

Serbia – a leader in the Western Balkans Nowadays, we face numerous global challenges such as the extinction of flora and fauna, endangering of ecosystems, the continuous growth of waste, pollution and scarcity of natural resources as effects of climate changes and pollution. Radical changes are more urgent than ever and Serbia is now embarking on the course to implement them. The Ministry of Environmental Protection with the support of the UNDP project “Circular Economy Platform for Sustainable Development in Serbia”, developed a document entitled Roadmap for circular economy(“Roadmap”).  The Roadmap is modeled on the type of existing documents in […]

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10 Jun 2020

Serbia signs and ratifies the so-called Convention 108+

Whenever you leave your home, buy something, apply for a job or pay bills these days – pretty much almost whatever you do –  your personal information is used, collected or processed.  In order to protect your right to private life regarding the automatic processing of your personal data, the Council of Europe adopted the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data – ETS No. 108 (“Convention 108”). (No) Need to Modernize the Convention Convention 108 is the first binding international instrument protecting individuals against abuses that may accompany the collection and processing […]

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05 Jun 2020

Gecić Law the first law firm to join the Responsible Business Forum Serbia

We are proud to announce that Gecić Law is the first member law firm and a pro bono partner of the Responsible Business Forum Serbia (Forum za odgovorno poslovanje), an organization founded in 2008 by some of the largest companies in Serbia dedicated to improving the local society through principles of sustainable development. The Forum’s motto is “Better business for better society” while its goal is to empower companies to conduct their business in line with principles of sustainability, responsibility and ethics, and to combine the know-how and the resources to further best business practices which bring measurable and positive […]

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02 Jun 2020

Self-driving cars on the road – who’s liable for damages?

Self-driving cars are almost a century-old dream. Ever since the concept of autonomous vehicles was presented at the 1939 New York World Fair sponsored by General Motors, the industry’s greats have raced to be the first to manufacture a self-driving car. Now, thanks to the development of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), this dream is ever closer to reality. Self-driving cars – (not) all quiet on the Western front? The US state of Nevada is (in)famous for its casinos, luxury resorts and the showbiz industry. However, Nevada is also known for being among the first to allow (limited) participation of self-driving cars […]

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28 May 2020

The Micula saga – what were the lessons learned?

One learns early on – if you want to sit at the cool kids’ table, you must do the work and engage in tedious diplomatic battles and quid pro quo bargains. Yet, does the accession to the EU automatically erase ghosts of times past? If one looks at the love-hate triangle between the EU, Romania and the Micula brothers, the answer is not necessarily positive. The Micula phenomenon No international lawyer is likely to ever ask: “Micula – who?” On the contrary, the Micula case(s) have by now generated such notoriety that they represent household terms in law offices around […]

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11 May 2020

Fighting the Onslaught of COVID-19 Litigation?

As worldwide lockdowns slowly recede and many of us, including courts, claimants and respondents, step back out of quarantines, we will be “greeted” by a plethora of complex litigation issues. The large number and complexity of these issues will require all sides to put in place even more sophisticated strategies to tackle the ensuing litigation onslaught. According to Harold Kim, the president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, “[t]his early litigation is really, from our vantage point, the tip of the iceberg”. Cue May 6, 2020: Serbia rescinded the almost two-month-long state of emergency and relaxed measures restricting […]

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