Košice City Court. (source: Róbert Bejda)
A new judiciary reform, better known as the new map of courts, has introduced a bureaucratic burden for firms in Košice and Bratislava: a requirement to update a small detail on their invoices, websites, stamps, and other relevant documents.
The change concerns more than 157,620 entities, according to the Justice Ministry.
Among other things, the reform, which came into effect on June 1, created a new type of court in Slovakia’s two largest municipalities: city courts. While in Košice, there is only one city court responsible for the business register and related agenda, Bratislava has four city courts. However, just the Bratislava City Court III that has taken over the business agenda.
Therefore, firms based in Košice and Bratislava will have to update the information on who registered them into the business register, changing information from a district court (Okresný súd Košice I or Okresný súd Bratislava I) to a city court (either Mestský súd Košice or Mestský súd Bratislava III).
Firms have to make this change at their own expense.
The burden does not concern the self-employed as they are not in the business register, but they may need to update contracts with partners if these partners are based in Košice or Bratislava.
The Commercial Code does not mention any fine for firms that will fail to update the aforementioned detail. The Business Register Act, nevertheless, allows the city court to fine firms in this case. The fine can be as high as €3,310.
