Since 19 July 2024, companies operating in the Czech Republic have faced significant changes in their legal obligations when undergoing mergers, spin-offs and other transformations. The new legislation follows the EU Directive on cross-border conversions, mergers, and demergers. It aims to streamline the transformation process, reduce administrative costs and bureaucratic burdens.
With effect from 1 January 2024, the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) of the Czech Republic issued a new notice on compliance programs specifying how ÚOHS will consider internal competition compliance rules as a mitigating circumstance when imposing fines. Since 2022, ÚOHS has recognized the enhancement of an existing compliance program, or the introduction of a new program, as a mitigating circumstance when imposing fines, subject to certain conditions. Building on the experience gained, the new ÚOHS notice outlines the conditions that businesses must meet for a compliance program to be considered effective and by how much the imposed fines can be reduced.
Like many other countries in the EU, the Czech Republic has repeatedly experienced shortages in the supply of medicinal products for human use. In response to this unfavorable situation, the Government of the Czech Republic prepared and submitted for discussion to the Parliament of the Czech Republic a draft amendment to Act No. 378/2007 Sb. on Medicinal Products and on Changes to Some Related Acts, as amended.
The long-awaited Amendment to the Labor Code was published in the Collection of Deeds on 19 September 2023. This Amendment primarily implements Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and caregivers, and Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union, but also facilitates significant progress in the digitization of labor law documents and changes the method of their delivery.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Blog Series: Sanctions Enforcement Around the World, the Czech Perspective on 31 July 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
The Czech Act on Protection of Whistleblowers (“Whistleblowing Act”) which implements the EU Whistleblowing Directive 2019/1937 was finally adopted and will become effective from 1 August 2023. The Whistleblowing Act introduces the obligation of employers to establish a whistleblowing channel to enable reporting of selected violations, and to protect individuals that filed such report.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Czech Republic introduces unilateral sanctions against Russia on 3 May 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
On 22 March 2023, the European Commission tabled a proposal for a Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims.
The proposal aims to harmonize the evaluation and monitoring of voluntary environmental claims – often referred to as “green claims” – towards EU consumers and control the proliferation of public and private environmental labels. Complementing the March 2022 proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition as a lex specialis by providing more specific requirements on the substantiation, communication and verification of green claims, it contributes to the fight against “greenwashing”.
An extensive amendment to the Act on Consumer Protection and the Civil Code came into effect on 6 January 2023. In this article we focus on changes introduced by the amendment in relation to liability for defects and guarantee.
Given the intensity and pace of change related to sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU Member States have been very focused on the need to move swiftly and flexibly within the sanctions landscape. The Czech Government is clearly signalling its intent to use sanctions powers and tools more readily…