News

On 13 December 2024, the new Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of the European Parliament and of the Council on General Product Safety (“GPSR”) will come into force. This regulation replaces the more than 20-year-old General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) and brings with it numerous innovations. The GPSR applies directly in all Member States of the European Union.

An employer who is concerned that an employee will compete with them after leaving the company will consider agreeing to a post-contractual non-competition clause.

For example, such a clause aims to prevent the employee from working as an employee for a competitor after the end of the employment relationship or from setting up a rival business of their own.

The requirements that the legal systems of the individual states place on the agreement, the form, and the cancellation of post-contractual non-competition clauses with employees vary greatly.

We are delighted to announce that experienced lawyers Marc Manciet and Soraya Racette will join our team in Paris as of January 1, 2025. Together with Maurice Hartmann, they will lead our Paris office, bringing extensive expertise in various areas of law.

As of October 2024, important arrangements have been made in the Work Permit Evaluation Criteria, and we have compiled the important criteria to be examined by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security together with the revisions and innovations as an information note . In addition, the amendments made in the Regulation Amending the Implementing Regulation on International Labour Force Law are summarised within our bulletin.

In May 2023, Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council on strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work or work of equal value through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms was adopted, and Member States are required to implement this di-rective into national law by 07/06/2026.

On 29 December 2023, the National People's Congress (the legislature of the People's Republic of China) made significant amendments to the criminal law.

This change in the law, which has meanwhile come into force, is in line with the central government's promise to sharpen the focus on lawful conduct by private companies in China and to fight corruption with all severity.

CBAM is a European Union compensation system to fairly price goods that are CO²-intensive in their production and thus encourage clean industrial production in third countries.

The European Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AI-Regulation) came into force on 1^st August 2024. It is the world's first legal regulation on artificial intelligence.

With the Law No. 7524 on the Amendment of Tax Laws and Certain Laws and Decree Law No. 375 published in the Official Gazette dated 2.8.2024 and numbered 32620, amendments have been made to the Laws regarding tax practices.

The "Regulation on the Procedures and Principles for the Transfer of Personal Data Abroad," published in the Official Gazette on July 10, 2024, includes regulations regarding the transfer of personal data abroad.

In recent months, the EU Parliament has passed a large number of ESG-related (ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance) legislative proposals. Given the speed and variety of new laws, it is important for entrepreneurs and organisations to stay informed about the latest developments in ESG legislation. Below we provide an overview of the current ESG regulatory requirements in the package of measures relating to the Green Deal and explain what companies should consider in the near future.

Law No. 7518 on Amendments to the Capital Markets Law, which entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette on 2^nd July 2024, introduces a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets in Türkiye. This review aims to provide a detailed analysis of the key provisions of the law, drawing comparisons with regulatory approaches adopted in other countries.

On 27 June 2024, the Act on the Modernisation of Citizenship Law will come into force in Germany. This law will essentially make it easier to naturalise as a German citizen and allow multiple citizenship.

The Global Minimum Corporate Tax came to the world agenda in 2021, and 137 countries, including Türkiye, agreed on its implementation. Although no legal arrangement has been made in Türkiye until today, the issue of global minimum tax rate has started to be discussed again in Türkiye as of May 2024. 

Since the beginning of 2022, a large number of data protection laws have been enacted in China. Since there was initially a lack of necessary concreteness and harmonisation of these laws, their specific scope and significance was difficult to estimate for foreign enterprises in China. In 2023 and 2024, there has been a large number of legal amendments and significant concretisation in data protection law.

Turkey is taking important steps to improve the investment climate and attract international investors. In this context, the Investment Advisory Council, which will convene for the first time since 2016 with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will play a critical role in increasing the investment attractiveness of Turkey.

With the Law No. 7501 on the Amendment of the Mining Law and Certain Laws, important changes were made especially in the field of renewable energy investments. The main objective of all these changes is to increase Turkey's energy security and support economic growth by paving the way for investments in the energy sector and mining.

The beginning of the year saw significant changes to corporate law. In Germany, a significant reform came into force with the Act on the Modernization of Partnership Law (MoPeG). In Austria, the catalog of company forms was expanded to include the 'flexible corporation', which has offered new opportunities for business activities since 1 January 2024. China will introduce comprehensive changes to company law from July 1, 2024, which will affect foreign investors and management in particular. There are also important developments in France, Italy, Slovakia and Turkey, which will each introduce new legal requirements and changes to the corporate environment.

In March 2024, Amendments to the Regulation on Recognition and Equivalence of Foreign Higher Education Diplomas prepared by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette. These amendments bring important innovations especially for students who completed their secondary education in Turkey.

Today, more and more business activities and professional activities are shifting to the digital world. The coronavirus pandemic has contributed significantly to this trend, as it has forced us to adapt to new realities. This situation, as well as the efficiency and convenience of remote work, has created a new working reality, which in turn brings new risks of which many of us were previously unaware. We are talking about cybercrime, which companies in particular can suffer.

With telemedicine / remote treatment, healthcare medical services are provided by means of audiovisual communication technologies over geographical or temporal distances. Telemedicine is diverse and can be provided both in regional rural care or across countries as well as in the specialised care of rare diseases or by specialists that are not available everywhere. Especially after the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has increased in importance.

On 1 March 2024, the second stage of the Skilled Immigration Act will come into force in Germany. This second stage will facilitate the employment of skilled workers with professional experience from non-EU countries.

General Communiqué No. 555 on the Tax Procedures Act, published by the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance in the Official Gazette No. 32415 on 30 December 2023 and entered into force on the same day, established the procedures and principles of the financial statements and correction procedures subject to inflation adjustment for the end of the 2023 accounting period and subsequent accounting periods.

The amendments made to the Income Tax Law with the Law No. 7491 on the Amendment of Certain Laws and Decree Laws published in the Official Gazette dated 28.12.2023 and numbered 32413 constitute the subject of the circular.

A new era has begun in Turkey regarding Airbnb and other short-term housing rental platforms. With Law No. 7464 on Renting of Residential Properties for Tourism Purposes and Amendments to Certain Laws, which came into effect on 1 January 2024, it has become mandatory for those who wish to rent a house for less than 100 days to obtain the so-called "Tourism Residence Permit Certificate" from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism before entering into a rental agreement.

From dream to real estate: Holiday properties have always been attractive, especially during times when holidays are becoming increasingly popular away from conventional hotel stays. However, it is important to keep an eye on costs despite all the enthusiasm. This begins with the incidental costs of the actual acquisition and can extend up to inheritance tax in case of inheritance.

In the following, we examine the costs that need to be taken into account for Germany, France and Austria, which may arise in case of acquisition of a property, on-going operations, for a sale, in case of a gift or in the event of inheritance.

Most countries of the European Union have already transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law within their legal systems. There are some legal differences in how the Whistleblower Directive has been transposed into the various laws.

The European Parliament adopted the regulation (‘’AI Act’’) on Artificial Intelligence (AI), bringing it one step closer to its potential transformation into law. Upon approval by the Council, this Act will be the first-ever regulation dedicated to AI.

In the case of M&A transactions, all participants strive for a quick closing and thus legal certainty in the future. Previously, an M&A transaction was checked ex ante by the responsible competition authorities if certain turnover thresholds were exceeded to determine whether the project would create or strengthen a dominant position. However, this legal certainty is now lost due to the most recent practice and case law of the European Court of Justice (hereinafter referred to as “ECJ”), since, even if the turnover thresholds are not met, there is the possibility of an ex post content review and, if necessary, a reversal obligation.

What is The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act? Which companies are obligated to comply with The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act? What are the prohibited activities under The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act? What are the obligations of the companies under The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act? What are the fines for not complying with The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act?

The decision to purchase a holiday home is often made on a wave of emotion, with the exuberance of great memories of a beautiful summer holiday. But however enthusiastic you are about the beauty of your home and its area, it is important to also keep an eye on the costs in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on leading to “buyer’s remorse”. These start with the ancillary costs of the actual purchase and can continue until the inheritance tax in the case of an inheritance.

In the following article, we review the costs you need to take into account for Turkey as they occur on the purchase of the property, during its ongoing use, on its sale or transfer as a gift, or even in the event of inheritance.

The decision to purchase a holiday home is often made on a wave of emotion, with the exuberance of great memories of a beautiful summer holiday. But however enthusiastic you are about the beauty of your home and its area, it is important to also keep an eye on the costs in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on leading to “buyer’s remorse”. These start with the ancillary costs of the actual purchase and can continue until the inheritance tax in the case of an inheritance.

In the following article, we review the costs you need to take into account for Italy as they occur on the purchase of the property, during its ongoing use, on its sale or transfer as a gift, or even in the event of inheritance.

On 12 January 2023 the Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (hereinafter: the “FSR Regulation”) has entered into force.

The FSR Regulation, which will apply from 12 July 2023, equips the European Commission (hereinafter: the “Commission”) with new tools preventing distortion in competition of the internal (EU) market resulting from “foreign subsidies” meaning subsidies granted by the non-EU states to the entities operating on the internal market.

With a judgment from 2019, the ECJ had clearly set the direction: From the Working Hours Directive in conjunction with Art. 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR), there is the obligation of the Member States to ensure that employers introduce an “objective, reliable and accessible system that can be used to measure the daily working hours worked by employees”; this follows from the right of employees to effective health protection and compliance with the legally prescribed (weekly and daily) maximum working hours. However, the ECJ had not set a specific deadline for the Member States.

Over three full years, the requirements of the ECJ then remained without any significant practical consequences, with a few exceptions that we will present below on a country-specific basis. And it was probably generally assumed that legislative intervention would be required for the practical implementation of the judgment. However, the German Federal Labour Court has now taken the ball directly and formulated directly from existing law specific obligations incumbent on the employer even without legislative measures.

The applicable e-commerce policy is over 20 years old. That is why the European Union launched a regulatory package for online platforms a few years ago.

The development and commercialisation of drones is making relentless progress. Due to the wide range of applications and the rapid technical advances, unmanned aircraft – or “UAS” (=Unmanned Aircraft System) for short – are predicted to be a promising future.

Under Turkish law, the employer is obliged to record and document the daily working hours of the employees with the help of suitable means. However, it was not determined by law exactly how the recording of working hours must be carried out. As mentioned, recording and documentation with the help of suitable means is sufficient.

In case of a hacking attack, unauthorised attackers attempt to access external PCs, notebooks, smartphones, tablets or even entire corporate networks. Since the frequency of such attacks has increased massively in Europe over the past year, in this article we look at the successful hacker attack from the outside, which encrypts the affected systems in such a way that the company can no longer access its system at all.

The European Commission’s Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“VBER”), which was previously potentially applicable to distribution, whereby agreements between manufacturers or suppliers and retailers are exempt from the ban on cartels, ceased to be in force on 31/05/2022, because the original period of validity of 12 years was reached.
These new versions bring some changes which relax requirements compared to the previous legal situation, but also tighten requirements, which primarily take into account the area of tension between online/offline sales.

Cryptocurrency, big data, artificial intelligence, data theft, cloud, virtual, augmented, or mixed reality, cyber warfare, telemedicine, social media, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, Criminal Law 4.0, NFTs – these are not the only issues that are bringing about the era of the fourth so-called digital revolution. Each of these digital changes is bringing new challenges to all facets of society – the link between law and technology is one of the biggest. An example that illustrates the special relationship between legal and digital technologies very well are NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

The "current turning point" in connection with the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has not only a political but also perhaps an even greater economic dimension. The sharp rise in the price of raw materials and energy has led to a dramatic increase in costs for companies. The interruption of supply chains often causes production downtimes in industry. Despite all the harmonisation of laws that has taken place in the last 20 to 30 years, especially in the European legal sphere, this issue has remained untouched by efforts at legal standardisation. The reason for this was apparently a lack of topicality. Therefore, with this article, we provide an overview of how this topic is handled legally with regard to three key questions in the respective countries of our partner law firms.

The legislation relating to drones in Turkey is the Civil Aviation Act and the Unmanned Aviation Communique. Commercial drone use is permitted within Turkey; however, since 01.08.2016, commercial drones may only be flown by specially trained remote pilots.

Already in 2020, the European Commission presented the draft for a new EU regulation on a single market for digital services, through which the latest developments in the field of digital services are to be incorporated and regulated at EU level. The proposal aims at better protection of consumer rights in the digital environment and at the joint internal market-related enforcement potential of the EU Member States.

The Turkish Code of Obligations provides, for example, in the case of production of work for a lump sum, that the adjustment of the contract can be demanded or withdrawal from the contract is possible if the production of the work for the lump sum becomes unreasonable due to circumstances which were not foreseeable at the time of conclusion of the contract or which were foreseeable but were not taken into account by the contracting parties.

The Paris Agreement is an international agreement that was signed in 2015 and entered into force in 2016 within the scope of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to prevent the climate crisis. The agreement aims to limit the global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, if possible, to keep it below 1.5 degrees. It is thought that limiting the temperature increase in this way will reduce the risks of climate change.

Information technologies and the Internet, which entered our lives rapidly towards the end of the last century and continue to develop at the same pace, find a place for themselves in every aspect of daily life today. Although the informatics world has made human life extremely easy with innovations, our personal data have also been transferred to the cyber environment as a result of this situation. The fact that the information systems contain such a large data pool and the ability to hide identity have paved the way for the increase of actions that will cause illegal results. As a result of the increase in these actions, the concept of "cybercrime" has come into our lives and the necessity to make regulations in this field with both domestic laws and international conventions has emerged in order to protect the victims of these crimes.

With the Covid-19 outbreak, rapid developments were occured in the transition to electronic hearing within the scope of the measures taken in courthouses. The e-Hearing system, which was developed by the Ministry of Justice and provides the opportunity to participate in the hearings with video conferencing, was a big step in terms of reducing the judicial costs as well as protecting the parties from coronavirus.

IraSME, a network of funding programmes

from different countries supporting SMEs research and development projects, announced that 31 March 2021 is the deadline of application for 27^th IraSME Call for transnational R&D projects. In this brochure, we will try to explain the details of 27^th IraSME Call for Proposals.  

State aid is granted on the basis of various criteria. The region or the economic sector in which the investment is made is decisive, but also the strategic importance of the investment and the level of the investment volume. Investments in structurally weak regions receive higher subsidies than investments in industrial areas. For the award of grants, a distinction is made between six different regions.

Justified by the goal of solving legal disputes in a fast and economical manner without filing lawsuits and thus relieving the overloaded Turkish courts, a mediation procedure is implemented as a mandatory pre-condition for filing a lawsuit according to Turkish labour and commercial law.

The presidential decree no. 32 issued on 12/09/2018 to protect the value of the Turkish cur-rency ("Decree") sets the limitation of foreign currency and foreign currency indexed contracts and stipulates that these contracts must be converted within 30 days into Turkish Lira (“TL”).