Novice

The Ministry of Justice has prepared the ninth amendment to the Financial Operations, Insolvency Proceedings, and Compulsory Dissolution Act (“ZFPPIPP”). The main purpose of amendment ZFPPIPP-I is to implement the constitutional ruling no. U-I-414/20-13 from May 3, 2023 regarding the unconstitutionality of the ninth paragraph in connection with point 1 of the second paragraph of Article 112 of ZFPPIPP.

The new collective agreement for the hospitality and tourism sector introduces various changes affecting employers and employees. These include increases in minimum base wages by tariff classes, higher minimum holiday allowances, and meal allowances. It also establishes the right to disconnect, shortens the “validity” of warnings before termination, and imposes stricter limits on assigning different work and overtime, etc.

Besides grants, incentives are also available in the form of loans and various guarantees or other types of security. Entrepreneurs will find AWS and ÖHT particularly valuable, as they offer favourable loans with special conditions for young companies, providing financing of up to EUR 30 million.

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that determining and paying a business performance bonus (commonly referred to in practice as the “Christmas bonus” or “13th salary”) based on the criteria of an employee’s (non)attendance at work due to personal circumstances (in that specific case, due to sick leave) constitutes discrimination. As the time to pay out the Christmas bonus nears, read on to learn about the consequences of this ruling.

With the period covered by the Consumer Agenda 2020 – 2025 slowly coming to an end, the European Union has already started to prepare the new Consumer Agenda 2025 – 2030. Here you can learn about the key aspects of consumer protection that are likely be relevant going forward.

In the concentration notification procedure, AVK was able to become acquainted with confidential information, which it was obligated to safeguard accordingly. The amended Article 38 of ZPOmK-2 now explicitly allows AVK to obtain confidential or secret data also from state authorities, local authorities, holders of public authority, or other organizations possessing such information.

Since the Ministry responsible for labour has stepped up its monitoring of employers’ compliance with the right to adequate rest, the question has been raised on several occasions in practice whether national legislation on the maximum amount of overtime that a worker can still agree to is compatible with the European regulation on working time. The statutory limitation on monthly permissible overtime is particularly problematic, set at 20 hours. Such restrictions are not explicitly stipulated in Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (“Directive“).

For tax purposes, real estate is defined as any residential building, the residential part of a mixed-use residential and commercial building, an apartment, or any other independent functional space intended for living. On the other hand, facilities used for storing agricultural machinery, tools, and other equipment, as well as properties where a municipal contribution decision specifies a use coefficient for manufacturing or non-manufacturing business premises, are not classified as real estate.

The European Union has responded to artificial intelligence’s unprecedented development and scale by introducing a new regulation. The Artificial Intelligence Act came into force at the beginning of August. Find out what it has in store below.

Just before the summer, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a landmark judgment in case C-547/22, paving the way for unsuccessful tenderers to recover part of their lost profits or damages for lost opportunities.

On the last day of the old year, an amendment to the Spatial Planning Act came into effect. This amendment ensures that building permits can still be issued and location verifications carried out, even in municipalities without harmonised spatial plans.

We are in the midst of a shopping frenzy, besieged on all sides by pre-holiday price cuts. Consumers, do you ever wonder how retailers arrive at those advertised prices with so many discounts flying around? Retailers, are you at a loss about how to correctly label your discounts? The answer to this question has been given by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a recent judgment. Discover which prices retailers are permitted to calculate and advertise a discount on.

The legislator has established the right to disconnect in the newly introduced Article 142.a of the Employment Relationships Act (“ZDR-1”), defining it as an employee’s right to be unavailable to the employer during rest periods and legitimate absences from work. Article 142.a ZDR-1 stipulates that the measures employers must implement to guarantee employees’ right to disconnect will primarily be determined through branch- or company-level collective agreements (taking into account the hierarchy of legal acts).