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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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On May 5, 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (“Constitutional Court”) delivered a judgment approving several constitutional complaints. The complaints pertain to the Public Sector Purchase Program (“PSPP”) and allege that it violates the prohibition of monetary financing under Article 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) and the principle of conferral provided for in Art. 5(1) of the Treaty on European Union (“TEU”). It is important to note that the European Court of Justice ruled on the matter on December 11, 2018, stating that the PSPP did not violate the funding ban. Two […]
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Programming is the creative process of writing a particular set of characters, which, in a certain sequence, is an instruction for a computer to perform a particular action. In order for the computer to “recognize” the instruction, the programmer must be as detailed and precise as possible when writing the specific instruction. A computer program consists of a set of instructions and, consequently, a large number of instructions need to be written. The oldest computer systems were created in the first half of the last century, which were mechanical or electromechanical in type. In order to introduce a new program […]
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