Category: Supply & Distribution

18 Oct 2023

5G CAM: Revolutionizing Cross-Border Mobility

5G is the fifth-generation mobile network, which promises to lead to a revolution, particularly in transportation.  This article focuses on connected and automated mobility (CAM), an offspring of 5G.  CAM lets vehicles communicate with each other and with the surrounding infrastructure.  Such communication can, in fact, enhance road safety, ease traffic jams, and cut CO2 emissions.  With this in mind, countries worldwide are diligently working on developing 5G cross-border corridors. 5G cross-border corridors are networks that connect transportation routes.  These routes, whether along roads, railways, or waterways, maintain 5G connectivity across international borders.  This connectivity is vital for CAM’s full-scale […]

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17 Jan 2023

The Dawn of Green Protectionism?

In her keynote speech at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commission President, outlined yesterday the main pillars of the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan to boost Europe’s leadership in green technology on its road to carbon neutrality.  “We know we have a small window to invest in clean tech and innovation to gain leadership before the fossil fuel economy becomes obsolete,” said von der Leyen. As the plan’s regulatory pillar, she announced a new Net-zero Industry Act to support the “greatest industrial transformation of our times” and keep up with strongly incentivized programs […]

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18 Aug 2022

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Open Balkans

The Open Balkans initiative aims to encourage and facilitate cooperation among the Balkans countries. The initiative was conceived across the Balkans, where the different cities symbolize the various stages in the development of the Open Balkans initiative.  In this article, we present the chronology of building ties between the countries by virtually visiting six key locations. (Note: If you decide to visit these towns, we advise you to create your itinerary on Google Maps,  not by this article :D). The first location associated with the birth of the Open Balkans project (as we know it today) is Novi Sad, and […]

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19 May 2022

EU’s New Vertical Block Exemption Regulation Revealed

On May 10, 2022, the European Commission adopted a new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (“VBER“) and related guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines“), following a detailed review of the previous Vertical Block Exemption Regulation dating to 2010 (“old VBER“). The objective of the VBER is to exempt agreements between undertakings operating at different levels of the supply chain (“vertical agreements”): if certain market share thresholds are met, and provided the agreement does not contain certain prohibited restrictions (“hardcore restrictions”). In other words, the VBER aims to recognize which types of vertical agreements are generally efficiency-enhancing and provide benefits to consumers. One of the […]

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13 Oct 2021

What is ESG and why is it important?

Multinational entities and governments are pushing for more action regarding Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. As a result, enterprises increasingly integrate the ever-changing social and environmental factors into their business strategies. The concept of business success has changed and so must the actions they take. But what exactly is ESG? ESG is a set of standards to guide corporate policies to ensure sustainable development in the fields of environment, social and corporate governance. How Did We Get to ESG? Only twenty years ago, if one would ask a group of individuals with a business background about the main objective […]

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11 May 2020

Fighting the Onslaught of COVID-19 Litigation?

As worldwide lockdowns slowly recede and many of us, including courts, claimants and respondents, step back out of quarantines, we will be “greeted” by a plethora of complex litigation issues. The large number and complexity of these issues will require all sides to put in place even more sophisticated strategies to tackle the ensuing litigation onslaught. According to Harold Kim, the president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, “[t]his early litigation is really, from our vantage point, the tip of the iceberg”. Cue May 6, 2020: Serbia rescinded the almost two-month-long state of emergency and relaxed measures restricting […]

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