‎ 20. 12. 2023

The effective date of the new Czech regulations introducing the obligation for employers employing employees based on small-job agreements (in Czech: dohoda o provedení práce) to report employees’ income to the Social Security Administration (and subsequently make social security contributions from that income) has been postponed to July 2024. The new regulations follow from amendments to the Act No. 589/1992 Coll., on Social Security Contributions and Contributions to the State Employment Policy, and the Act No. 187/2006 Coll., on Sickness Insurance, implemented by the Act No. 349/2023 Coll., on Amendments of Certain Laws in Connection with Consolidation of Public Budgets. The reason for postponing the effective date is the need to prepare the system for the new record-keeping and contribution arrangement. Starting from 1 July 2024, employees working based on small-job agreements will newly participate in pension and sickness insurance if, in one calendar month, their income from small-job agreements reaches at least 25 % of the national average wage with one employer or, alternatively, 40 % of the national average wage with more employers.

14. 9. 2023

We represented a client in obtaining a landmark decision from the Czech Supreme Court regarding compensation for damage caused by unlawful anti-COVID restrictions. This concerned lost profits due to the closure of a retail store as a result of anti-COVID governmental orders. While lower courts had dismissed the damage compensation claim, we managed to achieve a breakthrough at the Supreme Court. In its decision No. 30 Cdo 63/2023-71, the Supreme Court held that from the wording of the Crisis Act, it is evident that the concept of liability for damage arising in a causal connection with governmental crisis orders is a special compensation title that establishes government’s liability regardless of fault. Therefore, the government is liable for damage under three conditions: the implementation of a crisis order, the occurrence of damage, and the causal connection between the crisis order and the occurrence of damage. In conclusion, the Supreme Court addressed the previously unresolved question of when the implementation of a crisis restriction is considered one of the conditions for the government’s liability for damage. It argued that the government’s obligation to compensate for damage arises already at the moment when the effects of the crisis order leading to damage occur. In the case under consideration (restriction of retail sales), the very moment of issuing the crisis order in question shall be considered as the time of implementation. Our colleague Michaela Pechová Vosátková managed the case.

3. 2. 2023

At the beginning of 2023, a major consumer-law revamp has come into force in the Czech Republic. The overriding purpose of the Act No. 374/2022 Coll., being an amendment to the Consumer Protection Act (No. 634/1992 Coll.) and the Civil Code (Act No. 89/2012 Coll.), is the implementation of certain EU directives in the field of consumer law. The position of consumers is being reinforced by, inter alia, expanding the black list of unfair (abusive) clauses in consumer contracts or imposing additional restrictions on entering into contracts over phone. But, aside from that, the Act concentrates especially on private-law regulation of digital content. For the first time, consumers are being granted a right to updates of digital products they purchased or right to get access to content they created or stored through a digital service after termination of its use.