Business Registers Interconnection System – BRIS

Interconnection of central, commercial and companies registers in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

An amendment to the Act on the Commercial Register, which came into force on 15 June 2017, introduces an interconnected system of central, commercial and companies registers in the European Union (the Business Registers Interconnection System – BRIS).

The new system implements the requirements of Directive 2012/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 amending Council Directive 89/666/EEC and Directives 2005/56/EC and 2009/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the interconnection of central, commercial and companies registers.

Apart from introducing legislative and technical changes related to authorization of electronic documents, the amendment also addresses publication of registered data and provision of deposited documents through BRIS in electronic form.

An enterprise or an organization unit of a foreign person can now be deleted from the commercial register upon notification of the foreign commercial or other register via BRIS.

BRIS will include information on cross-border mergers by means of acquisition or by means of a new formation where the successor is a Slovak company, as well as information about the possible winding-up or insolvency of a company. The information will be accessible free of charge and immediately after the data is registered in the state of registration. The system will be available in all EU languages (especially the description of services and search criteria).

Under an amendment to the Act on Court Fees, various court fees will be cancelled. These include the fee for confirmation of non-existence of a certain entry in the commercial register, the fee for issuance of a deposited document in electronic form and the fee for electronic confirmation that a document is not deposited in the collection of deeds.

As for verification, this will be achieved by the electronic seal of the operator of the public administration information system as to the correctness of the data in an excerpt, or confirmation of non-existence of a certain entry in the commercial register, in a copy of a document or in confirmation that a document is not deposited in the collection of deeds sent to the applicant electronically.

Courtesy of: bnt.eu

New European Rules on Data Protection – GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is the new European data privacy regulation, which comes into force in less than eight ten months on 25 May 2018.

Does your business process any personal data such as names, birth dates, photos, email addresses, social network profiles, location details, computer IP addresses biometric or other sensitive data?

If the answer is “YES”, GDPR compliance shall be placed at the top of your agenda, as it applies to you regardless of whether such data processing takes place within or outside EU. Ahead of 25 May 2018, all organisations are strongly encouraged to review their data protection policies to ensure their compliance with GDPR.

GDPR will be directly applicable in all EU Member states. Nevertheless, each member state may modify certain clauses or even adopt more restrictive measures in certain areas. The Slovak Data Protection Authority (DPA) took this advantage and in June 2017 introduced a brand-new Personal Data Protection Act, which shall replace the current legislation. The proposal of the new act is strongly discussed by wider public.

The GDPR and the new Slovak Personal Data Protection Act imposes wide range of requirements on controllers and processors. Your organisation shall be prepared that it is the person who´s personal data are processed, who shall be on the driver´s seat.

GDPR penalties for non-compliance will be substantial. A failure to comply with the new rules may lead to fines amounting to €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding year. The new Slovak Act will also adopt these penalties. Of course, we are closely monitoring the process of implementation of the new Slovak Data Protection Act and will keep you updated.