In connection with the effect of Act No. 90/2012 Coll., on business corporations (hereinafter “ABC”), a controversial issue has arisen for joint stock companies with registered capital of less than CZK 2,000,000, as to whether they are required to increase their registered capital to the required level of CZK 2,000,000 in connection with the new legislation.…

The infringement of intellectual property rights is a growing problem affecting not only entrepreneurs in the EU. While 27,000 cases of the suspected infringement of intellectual property rights were detected by customs at border checkpoints in 2005, this number exceeded 90,000 in 2012. The OECD estimates that the world economy loses approximately EUR 200 billion a…

An amendment of the Act on Credit Unions has been approved and introduces several significant changes. Proposed changes to this legislation primarily include: · The establishment of an upper limit for the balance sheet total of the credit union or group of credit unions in the amount of CZK 5 billion The establishment of this…

A bill of exchange is a security that represents a certain claim of its owner against the issuer. A bill of exchange must contain the statutorily defined information precisely, otherwise it is invalid. These requirements are contained in Act No. 191/1950 Coll., on bills of exchange and cheques. According to the act, a bill of…

In case no. 28 2457/2013, the Supreme Court finally ruled in the infamous case of the Zlín attorney, who embezzled approximately quarter of a billion crowns (CZK 250,000,000). Well-known Zlín attorney, JUDr. M.H.received money from clients into escrow, then slowly embezzled the funds. When clients began to demand their money and distraint proceedings commenced to…

Act No. 90/2012 Coll., on business corporations (hereinafter “ABC”) has been in effect for some time. The final provisions of the Act include an important date for business corporations, namely 30 June 2014. The importance of this date is explained in Section 777 (1) of the ABC, which states that any provisions of Memoranda of…

In its ruling of 30 April 2014 in Case C-26/13, the Court of Justice of the European Union addressed the possible unfairness of the terms of loan agreements denominated in a foreign currency, under which the exchange rate used for the calculation of the amount of the loan differs from that used for loan repayments.…

In connection with the recodification of substantive civil law, in particular by Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the New Civil Code (hereinafter “NCC“), there has also been an amendment of the civil procedure code. Due to fundamental differences between contentious and non-contentious proceedings, which were jointly governed by Act No. 99/1963 Coll., the Civil Procedure Code…

With new legislation effective from 1 January 2014, especially Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code (hereinafter “NCC”) and Act No. 90/2012 Coll., on business corporations (hereinafter “ABC”), there have been many changes in the Czech legal environment and it will undoubtedly take some time for the addressees of these standards to adapt to these…

Legal practice in the CzechRepublic has long faced a serious problem based on the provisions of Section 17 of the Act on Bills of Exchange and Cheques, which states: “Persons sued on the basis of a bill of exchange cannot argue their case in relation to the bill holder based on their relationship to the…