Governmental legislation on compulsory vaccination does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights (“Convention”), the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR” or “Court”) ruled on April 8. Particularly, the ECHR noted that compulsory vaccination of children in the Czech Republic did not violate the right to respect for private life. The Case Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic The complaint was raised with reference to a fine imposed on Mr Vavřička and the non-admission of the child applicants to nursery school. The applicants said the legislation violated their rights under the Convention. Applicants claimed that the Czech state […]
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After a short break from our previous reflections on the EU’s new set of regulations concerning digital markets (more details available here), we are back with an even more vivid and thorough breakdown of the proposed regulation. To pick up where we left off, we will be taking a closer look at the Digital Services Act (“DSA“ or „Act“). As we have already familiarized ourselves with the EU’s goals and ambitions regarding new digital market regulation, we can now fully indulge ourselves by taking a closer look at the Act. We hope that you managed to catch your breath because […]
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For many years now, watching movies and series has shifted to various internet platforms, while authors are wondering where their copyrights are in all of this. Answers to that question should be provided by the Copyright and Related Rights Act (‟Copyright Act”), which came into operation more than 11 years ago, during a surge in the use of various data exchange platforms. Data is exchanged much faster, and computer technology is far more complex than it was before, and the Copyright Act is lagging behind in its response to emerging challenges regarding new ways of using technology and protecting authors. […]
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In the last few months, the Serbian National Competition Authority (“NCA”) has turned its attention to sanctioning agreements between undertakings where resale prices are maintained. After taking cases against consumer electronics undertakings, the NCA recently opened an investigation against a general importer and its three car dealers of “Audi” vehicles, in the course of its sectoral analysis of the markets of sales and after-sales services of motor vehicles. Resale Price Maintenance – What is the Problem? Resale price maintenance (“RPM”) is a contractual provision where the supplier (usually the manufacturer or general importer) binds the buyer (usually the distributor or […]
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As the famous Arabic proverb says, ‘Silence is golden’. And it seems that this nugget of ancient wisdom still holds true today – even in law; even when it comes to a high-profile case before the European Court of Justice. To find out why would silence be so important as to cause a stir among lawyers throughout Europe, we must track back to the beginning. What happened? On February 2, 2021, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) released a landmark ruling on due process rights in preliminary reference from the Italian Constitutional Court in DB v Commissione Nazionale per le […]
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Gecić Law is currently representing Bosnia and Herzegovina in a procedure with the Energy Community, a landmark case across the Balkans related to alleged state aid in the construction of Block 7 of the Tuzla Thermal Power Plant, a project worth USD 1.1 billion, with co-counsel Marić & Co. Law Firm based in Sarajevo. Launched in 2018 by the Secretariat of the Energy Community against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the process has been marked by violation of due process, complete disregard for the rights of the defense as well as continuous bids of the prosecution to speed up the process and […]
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Diplomacy & Commerce magazine, a syndication of London’s The Economist magazine for Serbia, prepared a special InFocus supplement as part of its February 2021 issue, with the aim of providing the readers a closer insight into the development of bilateral relations and successful cooperation between Serbia and the United Arab Emirates. Bogdan Gecic, Managing Partner at Gecic Law, a founding and exclusive member of the UAE Serbia Business club since 2019, gave an interview, which can be read in its entirety below. As an industry, the legal profession has been changing significantly. We have always believed there is a lot […]
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Our Energy practice team has repeatedly demonstrated its credibility by devising unique opportunities for greenfield and brownfield investments for our clients. We provide comprehensive solutions related to privatization, regulatory compliance and due diligence in cooperation with eminent regulatory, corporate and financial experts. Counsel to Norwegian NBT AS on Wind Farms Project in Serbia Our latest accomplishment in the energy sector is providing counsel to NBT AS, Norway, a utility-scale wind power developer (exceeding 100 KW of power), in partnering with WV International (formerly Windvision). WV International has been developing wind farm projects in Serbia since 2010 and has been active […]
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The Treaty of Nice, a landmark agreement in the history of the European integration process, celebrated its 20th anniversary last Friday. The legislation was signed on February 26, 2001 and came into force on February 1, 2003. The key aim of the Treaty was to introduce institutional changes and decision-making reform, amending the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Rome, which would allow for the ensuing EU enlargement. The Treaty introduced qualified majority voting in the European Council, removed national vetoes in many areas and gave the European Parliament the power to elect the Commission President. It formalized the principles […]
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Unbelievable numbers: 840,000 employees, USD 280 billion in revenue for 2019, USD 11.5 billion profit (for the same year) and first centi-billionaire owner ever. Today, one of the biggest undertakings in global trade. But, on the other side, one of “The Biggest Deals” for the EU, ever. We bring you a story of to-ings and fro-ings between Amazon and the EU Commission. Short Recap Rewind to July 17, 2019. On that day, the Commission opened an investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct by Amazon. More precisely, an investigation was opened to assess whether Amazon’s use of sensitive data from independent retailers […]
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The development of the judiciary is one of the key priorities for the Republic of Serbia. It is a permanent process of modernization and harmonization of the judiciary with the needs of the state and society, in order to ensure rule of law and enhance legal certainty. In line with this, on July 10, the Government of the Republic of Serbia, adopted Judicial Development Strategy for the time period between 2020 and 2025 (“Strategy”), as well as the revised Action Plan for the Chapter 23 (“Action plan”). We would also like to point out that AmCham Serbia, of which Gecić […]
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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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The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (“the Council”) on 18 February 2020 adopted revised conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes (“the EU list”). The EU list (Annex I) includes non-EU countries or territories which had not made sufficient commitments in response to the EU‘s concerns about taxation arrangements. The State of play section (Annex II) lists the jurisdictions which had responded with sufficient commitments. Therefore, the jurisdictions that do not yet comply with all international tax standards but have committed to reforms are included in Annex II. These countries need to take effective actions to […]
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If you open the eighth edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Law and turn to page 461, poaching is defined as “taking game without permission from private land or from land on which the killing of game is restricted. Wild animals cannot usually be stolen […]”. Although the current degree of development of human rights and basic human decency forbid referring to employees as “wild animals” (at least publicly), and killing is certainly considered a criminal offence, in the corporate world of today to poach someone means to hire an employee from another, often competing, undertaking. Agreements among companies not […]
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On 30 May 2018, the European Commission (“Commission”) announced that the European Parliament and the Council have reached an agreement concerning a proposed new Directive, in order to further build on the Regulation 1/2003 and enable the competition authorities (“NCAs”) of EU Member States to enforce EU antitrust rules more effectively. The new Directive, proposed as the “Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council to Empower the Competition Authorities of the Member States to be more Effective Enforcers and to ensure the Proper Functioning of the Internal Market” (“Proposed Directive”), came out as a consensus following numerous consultations […]
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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is currently a global hot topic – and for a good reason. It practically revamps the legal framework concerning Data Protection rules, introduces a whole set of new obligations while imposing massive fines for non-compliance. While the GDPR came into the force recently, it is no surprise that many are worried how it will affect their organizations as the legislation, under certain conditions, is to be applied worldwide —both inside and outside of the EU. Given that compliance with the GDPR will be no mean feat, requiring vast amount of time and resources, no matter how […]
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In December 2017, European Added Value Unit of the European Parliament published the Fourth edition of its report “Mapping the Cost of Non-Europe 2014-2019” (the “Study”). The Study is especially relevant if placed in the context of challenges the EU is facing today such as: impact of Brexit on the EU Budget and the consequences for the EU’s political and economic interests, the rise of populist parties within the EU Member States and rather sluggish European economic growth. The aim of the Study is to analyze potential increases in annual EU GDP, if different policy initiatives made by the European […]
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