Insights

The draft amendments to the Labour Code address two issues: telework and the introduction of joint and several liability of contractor and subcontractor for wages. The proposals reveal some shortcomings that could create serious practical difficulties. The new provision on joint and several liability is vague, disproportionate and contradicts fundamental principles of labour and contract law. *This pulication is in Bulgarian.

On 27 April 2023, the Council for Electronic Media – CEM published its Report on the specialised monitoring of the election campaign for the 49th Parliament. In the Report, the CEM presents its findings following the process of specialised monitoring of the activity of 14 channels of public media service providers and 13 channels of commercial media service providers related to yet another parliamentary election in Bulgaria. The Report also includes information on the performance of four online platforms. The Report covers their media behaviour during the election campaign (from 3 to 31 March 2023), on the day of reflection (1 April 2023) as well as on the day of the elections (2 April 2023). *This publication is also available in German and French.

It is well established in the jurisprudence of the SCC that the contract for assignment of future claims is null and void for lack of subject matter on the basis of Article 26(2) of the Obligations and Contracts Act due to the indeterminability of future claims. In his article published in the Commercial and Obligation Law Magazine, Asen Stefanov criticizes this thesis, as it limits the civil turnover and risks that the effects of the blank/global collateral assignment contract, which is widely used in foreign jurisdictions, will not be recognized in Bulgaria, whereby the assignor transfers all its present and future claims from third parties - its debtors, as a form of security for its obligations to the assignee - its creditor. *This publication is in Bulgarian.

On 2 March 2023, the draft Act for amendment and supplement to the Criminal Code was published on the Public Consultations Portal. The deadline for public discussion (submission of statements by interested parties) was 3 April 2023. The newly proposed provisions would allow for the prosecution of individuals who create conditions for online piracy. This includes individuals who develop and maintain torrent tracker sites, web platforms, chat groups in applications for online exchange of pirated content, and other similar activities. *This publication is also available in German and French.

The competent authorities for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including the protection from threats to public order and security and their prevention (police and criminal activity) process a number of personal data for a diverse range of subjects - suspects, accused, convicted persons, witnesses (including protected witnesses), victims of crimes, undercover agents and many others. Protecting their personal data from unauthorized or unlawful processing and from accidental loss, destruction or damage is a key prerequisite for the normal and lawful police and criminal activity. Moreover, compromising the security of this data is likely to endanger the lives, health, rights and freedoms of these and other individuals. Therefore, the competent authorities are called upon to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures for the security of these personal data. This paper aims to explore some basic data security guarantees enshrined in EU and Bulgarian law, in particular Directive 2016/680 and the Personal Data Protection Act.