El tribunal ha dictado un auto que se detiene sobre determinadas prácticas que se han producido en las subastas extrajudiciales de algunos procesos de liquidación. Concretamente, descarta la posibilidad de cobrar una comisión cuando el adjudicatario en la subasta es el propio acreedor con privilegio especial.

The appeal court has issued a decision which constitutes a reminder to be careful in relation to practices that have been occurring in certain out-of-court auctions within liquidation proceedings. Particularly, it rejects the possibility that a commission fee is collected when the winning bidder is the secured creditor whose security interest levies the asset sold.

Editorial | Restructuring Directive  

Editorial | CEE

Reasoning behind the changes

In the two years that the "new" bankruptcy regime – the Bankruptcy Act of September 2015 (Stečajni zakon; the "BA") – has been in place, the number of pre-bankruptcy procedures initiated in Croatia has plummeted to only 273, with 58 restructuring plans being accepted. By comparison, under the previous pre-bankruptcy regime from 2012 to 2015, 8,262 pre-bankruptcy procedures were initiated, with 2,224 restructuring plans being reached.

The recently adopted Croatian Bankruptcy Act ("SZ")[1] sets out a new integrated pre-bankruptcy and bankruptcy regime. SZ has entirely replaced the previous bankruptcy act that was in force for 18 years, as well as provisions regulating pre-bankruptcy settlement proceedings prescribed under the Act on Financial Operations and Pre-bankruptcy Settlement