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Kinstellar announces new promotions in the Budapest office
Kinstellar Budapest is pleased to announce that Ákos Nagy has been appointed as Partner and Head of the local Competition, Dispute Resolution, Risk & Investigations, and ESG Service Lines, and Zsuzsa Andrékó and Máté Nagy have both been promoted to Of Counsels. Ákos has been with the Firm since its launch in 2008 and has been a key pillar in the development of the Budapest Office. He brings more than 20 years of experience in corporate, M&A, commercial, regulatory, and compliance matters, with a strong focus on the automotive, battery and defence sectors. He has supported numerous strategic investors on their greenfield investments in Hungary and across the CEE region, including leading players in the electric
EU adopts 18th sanctions package against Russia
On July 18, the European Council adopted its 18th sanctions package to be imposed on Russia for its continued war in Ukraine. The sanctions are mainly aimed at entities and activities concerning the military, energy, and banking sectors. The package also includes efforts to provide protection for Member States against investment arbitration and additional measures against the circumvention of the sanctions in place. We summarize the key issues touched on by the new amendments below. Military sanctions Measures aimed at the Russian military industrial complex and its suppliers include tighter export restrictions on certain dual-use goods and technologies for 26 new entities, 11 of which are located
European Commission guidance letter on licensing standard essential patents by the Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group
The European Commission issued an informal guidance letter to the Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group (ALNG), marking the first application of the Informal Guidance Notice allowing for undertakings to approach the Commission with novel or unresolved issues concerning European competition law. Licensing Negotiation Groups (LNGs) are a novel form of agreement and share certain characteristics with joint purchasing agreements – only that they aim at licensing intellectual property rights instead of purchasing goods or services. ALNG, formed by BMW, Volkswagen, ThyssenKrupp and Mercedes-Benz, is the first of its kind in the EU, aimed at licensing standard essential patents (SEPs), which are patents that are required to
Defence Readiness Omnibus: EUR 800 billion to be spent on defence in the next four years
As part of the European Commission's ReArm Europe Plan, Readiness 2030, European Union Member States will mobilise EUR 800 billion over the next four years to finance a massive ramp-up of their defence spending. On 17 June 2025, the Commission adopted the Defence Readiness Omnibus ("Omnibus") to facilitate these defence investments. The Omnibus is the response to the call of the European Council from March this year[1] for the Commission to enable the simplification of both legal and administrative frameworks relevant to defence readiness, in line with the 2022 Versailles declaration by EU leaders calling for Member States to bolster their defence capabilities following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In its March