News

FORT advised investors on acquisition of Georg Ots Spa hotel in Kuressaare

FORT represented Cornada OÜ in transaction concerning the purchase of the building of well-known and popular Georg Ots Spa hotel in Kuressaare, Saaremaa. According to the buyers, Kuressaare still has a lot of potential as a tourist destination. The total area of the building is over 6600 square meters, the hotel has 92 rooms.

FORT has represented the real estate investment company EfTEN Capital AS in investment in its new product – housing rental in Kaunas

EfTEN is taking the first step into the Lithuanian housing rental market by investing 10 mio euros to construction of 2 nine-storey multi-apartment buildings in Kaunas. The project will produce 96 completely installed and furnished apartments to be rented on a long-term basis. EfTEN will work side by side with the real estate developer UAB Etapas Group. This is the first investment by EfTEN Residential Fund in Lithuania.

Attorney-at-law Rūta Radzevičiūtė – Meizeraitė has advised EfTEN on all transaction documents.

More information can be found here [https://bit.ly/3qWzvzs]

Our partner Andreas Veeret successfully represented a client in a court dispute against a competitor

Our partner Andreas Veeret successfully represented a client in a court dispute against a competitor. The competitor filed an action claiming that our client had breached EU competition rules and was thus obligated to compensate the competitor for damage caused thereof. One of the main disputed issues was the question of whether guarantee terms effected by the producer of a vehicle were too cumbersome towards the owner/possessor of the vehicle and as such, in contradiction to EU competition rules. The court agreed with our arguments, found that our client had not breached any competition rules and decided not to satisfy the action.

Margus Kõiva gave a presentation on public procurement promoting innovation

FORT Law Office had the privilege of contributing to DeltaE Engineering Office’s conference on energy saving and industrial solutions for industry and business real estate (13-14 October 2021).

FORT advised cross-border transaction valued over 15 million USD

Control was acquired over an international company that employs proprietary machine learning techniques for providing liquidity to the cryptocurrency platforms. The business model of this unique quantitative trading company relies on a strictly data-driven approach, artificial intelligence, and time series analysis.

Associate Tõnis Loorits criticised Estonian FIU in press

Associate Tõnis Loorits represents 8 companies who filed a lawsuit against the procrastination tactics of the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). FIU is an independent institution in the area of government of the Ministry of Finance.

FORT tax counsel Ivo Vanasaun gave a presentation in the International Fiscal Association webinar

International Fiscal Association  (IFA) Poland and the Young IFA Network organises international 2 days webinar entitled  ” Source taxation/withholding tax (WHT) in different countries”. In webinar discusses experts from 12 countries, including representatives from UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and also Baltic countries.

FORT represented leading real estate development companies regarding the potentially unlawful state aid given to Porto Franco

Law Firm FORT represented six leading real estate development companies in submitting a complaint with the European Commission regarding the potentially unlawful state aid given to Porto Franco. According to partner Kuldar-Jaan Torokoff the real estate developers´ objective was to draw attention to the problem as, in their view, the state´s interference with the real estate development market is unfounded and distorts the latter.

Intertax publishes article by tax counsel Ivo Vanasaun

The international journal Intertax published an article by FORT’s tax counsel Ivo Vanasaun “Transition from Soviet Union’s Tax Regime to Estonia’s Own Tax System”.

Legitimate Source of Funds Proven before the Economic Court

In representing an Estonian company before the Economic Court (EC) in proceedings regarding property acquired through a criminal offence, Law Firm FORT has proven legitimate source of the client’s funds. By the EC decision of 27 August 2021 it is resolved not to recognize the arrested funds to be acquired through a criminal offence and terminate the proceedings regarding the property acquired through crime. The court decision forms a methodology of evaluation that is of crucial importance in other proceedings concerning property acquired through a criminal offence as well.