Commercial Law

  • Amendment of the Commercial Code effective as of June 30, 2011, which, in accordance with Directive No. 2007/63/ES, aims at reducing the administrative burden of selected processes of mergers, fusions and divisions of joint stock companies, for example by simplifying the requirements for preparation and submission of a written report of the statutory body on the merger or division of the company under Section 218c (2) of the Commercial Code, by simplifying the information obligations of companies involved in mergers or divisions of companies by allowing publication of the documents on the companies' websites pursuant to Section 218c (2) of the Commercial Code, etc.
  • New Act on Commercial Bulletin effective as of July 1, 2011, superseding the present Regulation No. 42/2004 Coll. On Commercial Bulletin. The Act was drafted primarily with the aim to ensure the rules for issuing the electronic version of the Commercial Bulletin in order to make the Commercial Bulletin free and available to general public and to provide the public with effective and easy access to the relevant data published in the Commercial Bulletin.
  • The government enacted the new Act on Collective Investment, effective as of July 1, 2011, as re-codification of the Act. No. 594/2003 Coll. on Collective Investment. The aim of the new Act is to comprehensively regulate the process of collective investment in accordance with the laws of the European Communities.
  • The Parliament enacted the Act on Energy Labeling, which comes into force partly as of July 20, 2011 and partly as of July 31, 2011. The Act establishes a new legal framework for labeling of energy-related products, basic requirement for the manufacturers, agents, importers and traders and obligations related to advertising and public procurement of energy-related products. Energy-related product is a product having a direct or indirect impact on energy consumption or on other essential resource during its use (such as dishwashers, televisions, etc.).

Land Law / European Law

  • The government enacted the regulation amending the Regulation No. 238/2010 Coll. and providing for details of lease, sale, exchange or acquisition of real estate by the Slovak Land Fund. The Act modifies the procedure of the Fund for the lease, sale and exchange of land, for example the Fund may not lease land to an individual who is a debtor of the Fund or to such debtor’s close person or to a person who has tax arrears, arrears on customs debt, on contributions to health insurance, to social insurance, etc. The Fund may terminate a lease if the tenant fails to fulfill contractual obligations with respect to the Fund, or may postpone the maturity of the purchase price for the land only up to three years. The Fund may exchange state owned land with land owned by individuals only within directly neighboring municipalities or within the same district. 
  • The European Commission adopted a decision extending the time of moratorium on purchase of agriculture and forest land in the Slovak Republic until April 30, 2014. The Act of Accessions dated 2003 allows Slovakia to maintain the bans on the acquisition of agricultural land by natural and legal persons from other EU member states which neither have the seat nor are registered nor have a branch or agent in Slovakia, for a period of seven years from the date of accession, i.e. until April 30, 2011. This decision is a temporary exemption concerning the free movement of investment. The exemption is laid down in Act No. 202/1995 Coll. the Exchange Act.

Miscellaneous

  • The Parliament enacted the Act on the Promotion of Energy and Environmentally Economic Vehicles effective as of June 15, 2011, which transposes Directive No. 2009/33/EC with the aim to promote the marketing of energy and environmentally economic vehicles on the market. Contracting authority, contracting entities, and carriers providing public interest services are obliged to consider energy and environmental impacts of vehicles during their lifetime when purchasing or leasing vehicles of certain categories over stated financial levels.
  • The Parliament enacted the Act on Recognition and Execution of decisions on financial penalties in the European Union, effective as of August 1, 2011. The act transposes the Framework Decision No. 2005/214 on application of the principle of mutual recognition to financial penalties. The act applies to a final decision issued in respect of a criminal offence or a road traffic offense by the issuing court in criminal proceeding or by the issuing administrative authority, if under the law of the issuing state, a remedy could have been filed against the decision before a court having jurisdiction in criminal matters.