Last week, the General Court of the European Union dismissed Coca Cola's request to register its bottle shape without fluting as a Community trade mark, further denying the soft drink giant's intention, five years since the application in question was initially submitted. Back in December, 2011, Coca-Cola filed an application to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) for the registration of its glass bottle without fluting as a Community trademark ...
The European Commission has opened an in-depth merger investigation into the planned acquisition of Cemex Croatia by Duna-Drava Cement ('DDC'). Registered in Hungary, DDC is jointly controlled by German construction material producers HeidelbergCement and Schwenk. DDC inter alia operates a cement plant in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cemex Croatia, an arm of the international cement heavyweight Cemex, controls three cement plants in the Croatian coastal city of Split ...
According to latest news reports, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) has shown significant interest in buying a majority stake of the Montenegrin branch of Telekom Srbija – View More
Recent news bring us an update from the Energy Community (EC), whose latest report has outlined that Serbia has not resolved the key issue of non-compliance with the aquis – something that presents a continuous violation of obligations under the EC Treaty – by not completing the separation of Srbijagas and Yugorosgaz activities in accordance with the "Second Energy Package" ...
Latest news reports are informing us that the European Energy Community (EC) went back on their threats of suspending Serbia's membership, after a series of fruitful negotiations between EC's representatives and the Serbian Ministry of Energy. The agreement which allowed for this development stipulates that Serbia has accepted the plan of action regarding the restructuring of Srbijagas, at the same time complying with the requirements of the Third Energy Package ...
The current COVID-19outbreak and severe and numerous preventive and restrictive measures governments are continually introducing are first and foremost a global health concern. However, this situation has already caused significant distortions to businesses and their ability to perform their contractual obligations. The question of all questions seems to be if the COVID-19 pandemic is aforce majeureor not ...
According to recent reports, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has plans of investing more than EUR 3 billion in the Western Balkans region, of which approximately EUR 300 million is assigned to Serbia ...
One of the biggest news reports in the region last week was the acquisition ofPorto Montenegro, the luxury yacht marina located in Tivat, by theView More
The contemporary business world has become fundamentally tied in with the progress of globalisation, and for anyone involved in it, that is no secret. Anybody would be hard pressed to find an industry that can exist and sustain itself in a purely national context, without – at least in some regard – relying on either a piece of legislation or a practice trend that is related to whatever kind of international functioning ...
The tax team at Karanović & Nikolić participated in the 13th Edition of Doing Business 2016 – Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency, a World Bank Group Flagship Report. Renowned as one of the most influential policy publications across the globe, Doing Business provides a detailed analysis on the state of health of world-wide economies ...
The Government of Serbia adopted the Regulation on the Procedure for Issuance of Debt Securities (“Regulation”). This is one of the economic measures presented to reduce the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an attempt to support the economy of Serbia. The Regulation entered into the force on 10 April 2020 ...
In March 2017, the Montenegrin Agency for the Protection of Competition carried out an unannounced inspection (dawn raid) at the business premises of Sava Trans d.o.o. Cetinje, a company engaged in freight transport, in order to collect data necessary for undertaking further actions carried out by the Agency ...
Lana Sarajlić, attorney-at-law in cooperation with Karanović & Nikolić, participated in a Business Briefing on 10 May, which was hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), on the topic of data protection developments and trends in BiH practice ...
Media reports from Croatia are telling us that the Podravka food company has sold its Studenac mineral water bottling facilities to the Slovenian Radenska company, which is in turn owned by the Czech company Kofola – one of the European leaders in the field of producing and distributing non-alcoholic drinks. The acquisition contract has been reported as signed, with the full takeover expected to happen by the end of this year ...
There has been an exciting development in the entertainment industry, as the Czech company"Sebre a.s."bought a 20% stake in Serbian "Avala film" – an iconic studio hailing from the golden age of Yugoslavian film ...
The national competition authorities in South Eastern Europe are evidently increasing and strengthening their cross-border cooperation and communication, allowing for a more effective regional approach in the protection of competition. Taking into account common challenges and economic interdependence, as well as similar goals in EU integration, the authorities appear to have recognized significant merit in a broader regional framework for competition enforcement ...
An encouraging news update comes from Croatia, as some of the recent reports claim that the Croatian IT market reached a value of EUR 950 million in 2015. According to IDC Adriatic – a regional branch of the global market intelligence provider – this shows an increase of 10.8% when compared to the previous year.IDC Adriatic added that a continuation of the IT market's recovery is expected in 2016 as well. More precisely, further strengthening of the market at an average annual rate of 6 ...
The Croatian Competition Agency (the "Agency") initiated proceedings against Grand Auto – an authorised dealer of Land Rover and Jaguar cars for Croatia, after an initiative by the Auto Dealership "Karlo", a former authorised repairer of the said cars for Croatia ...
At a recently held Roundtable on the topic of the economic and environmental challenges that are surrounding the process of building the second block of the thermal power plant in Pljevlja, the Montenegrin Network for the Affirmation of the NGO sector (MANS), has scrutinised the whole idea behind this state-owned National Power Company of Montenegro's (EPCG) project ...
The latest activity update regarding the Serbian Competition Commission has been the Decision brought by the Commission's President to initiate ex officio proceedings for suspected price fixing against 26 undertakings operating in the field of geodetic services.The proceedings come following a complaint by the Belgrade Land Development Public Agency, delivered to the Commission in April this year ...
Another piece of news related to our competition team in Serbia are the recent signings of a Memorandum of Understanding and Agreement of Cooperation in the field of forensics between the Commission for the Protection of Competition and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) ...
TheSarajevo Business Forum2016(SBF) was, among hosting a number of lectures and discussions, a platform for one of the largest post-war investments in the energy sector in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) ...
The beginning of the summer brought amendments to several employment-related laws. The most notable changes are presented below: The Law on the Employment of Foreigners The duration of the labour market test– The labour market test within the work-permit acquisition process (through which the National Employment Service examines whether there are any Serbian citizens suitable for the vacant position), is shortened to 10 days, having previously lasted one month ...
Following a Phase II investigation, the Serbian Competition Commission granted conditional clearance to SBB''s takeover of IKOM. This consolidation of leading cable operators in Belgrade represents a landmark case for the Serbian authority and is related to global trends in consolidation of cable network operators, which fosters the investments necessary for improvements to network infrastructure and competition with IPTV, OTT and satellite content providers ...
