6th April 2018

Czech Legislation Update March 2018

After vote of no confidence by the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, the Czech minority government resigned on 17 January. It has continued as a caretaker government. New coalition negotiations have been underway. On 26 January, Miloš Zeman was re-elected president of the Czech Republic and was inaugurated on 8 March. Policy Statement of the Government of the Czech Republic from 8 January 2018

 

 

From the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies

The Chamber of Deputies will debate government proposal of the Act on Personal Data Protection (bill no. 138 and related bill no. 131) in connection with the adopted EU regulation.

Tax Code amendment proposal (bill no. 47), suggesting that banks, legal advisers, notaries, auditors, financial advisers, insurers etc should provide data on their clients if a tax administration office asks them to do so in suspicious cases. On 21 March, the bill was passed with rules applying only to banks. The bill is heading to the Senate and should be debated at the session starting on 25 April.

The Chamber of Deputies is debating draft amendment to the Act on Free Access to Information bill no. 50 suggesting that state-controlled institutions, including state-owned companies should dislose information (according to Act no. 106/1999) and contracts within the registry of contracts.The bill will be debated by the Chamber Committees.

 

From the sessions of the Government

At its session on 21 February, the Government passed material intent of the Act on lobbying. 

The Senate draft amendment to the Act on Online Sales Registration (EET, o Evidenci tržeb) is proposing further exemptions from the set of entities obliged to comply with this act. Senators suggest exemptions for specific cases of social and health care services. The Senate passed this bill on 7 December; the Government expressed disapproval and the Chamber of Deputies rejected the bill on March 20, 2018. At the same time, Civic Democrats in the Chamber of Deputies have proposed elimination of EET (which was rejected by the Government in December). This proposal was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies on 23 January. Another attempt to reduce the reach of EET in the Chamber pipeline is bill no. 41  suggesting application of EET only to income tax payers who are at the same time registered VAT payers.

The Government promised a law on class actions, Radio Praha wrote. Decision is in principle only with the Minister of Justice R.Pelikan saying it will likely take until the first quarter of 2019 for legislation to be prepared for parliamentary approval. Read more.

 

 

The Office for the Protection of Personal Data (UOOU) published New explanatory guidelines for the GDPRMORE

At the beginning of March, a draft amendment bill submitted by the regional government of Pardubice passed the hurdle of a first reading in the house of deputies of Czech parliament. This bill envisions that it will no longer be possible to invoke the defense of bias on the part of officials due to their public-service or employment relationship with the state or with the relevant unit of self-government; in effect, this would be tantamount to abolishing the defense of (what is known as) systemic bias of the administration altogether. More details by bnt attorneys-at-law.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic