As of January 1, 2014, act no 90/2012, on business corporations (hereinafter BCA) entered into force, replacing act no. 513/1991 Sb., the Commercial Code, and stipulating an obligation for joint stock companies in article 7 paragraph 2 to publish, without unnecessary delay after their establishment, and publish continually selected data in a way enabling remote access, which is free for the public, so that the information would be accessible in an easy way upon entering an electronic address (website), the data, which they are obliged to state on business documents, as well as other data stipulated by this act.

What data need to be published can be ascertained from the stipulation of article 435 of act no. 89/2012, the Civil Code, where it is said that every entrepreneur, regardless of his legal form, must state on his business documents:

• Name and registered office
• Information about registration in a public register, including the section and file number
• The assigned identification datum

One could observe that the above-mentioned list represents a minimum scope of data, which every joint stock company must publish on its website from January 1, 2014. In reality, this is not so, because the obligatory information, which a joint stock company must publish on its website, further follows from other stipulation of the business corporations act, from which it is possible to mention:

1. being part of a concern according to the stipulation of article 79 paragraph 3,
2. the report on relations between related parties according to article 84 paragraph 1, following articles 436 and 437,
3. an expert report about reviewing of the report on relations according to article 91 paragraph 1,
4. information for the owners of priority bonds according to article 290 paragraph 2,
5. information about preemptive right of shareholders to acquire convertible or priority bonds - article 292 paragraph 2,
6. report on financial assistance according to article 312,
7. public draft contract for purchase or conversion of participating securities (article 323 paragraph 1),
8. decision about delisting participating securities from trading on the European regulated market (article 334), about a change of the type of shares or limitation of their transferability (article 335 paragraph 2),
9. a company with participating securities accepted for trading on the regulated market publishes information here relating to a forced transfer of participating securities (article 379 paragraph 2),
10. decision about a forced transfer of participating securities along with the conclusions of an expertise for evaluation or a justification of the height of consideration (article 384),
11. the date of exerting a right to compensation in case of forced transfer of participating securities (article 390 paragraph 2),
12. court judgment about imposing a right to deposit compensation in case of squeeze-out into court custody and a call to apply for consideration or an out-of-court settlement about compensation (see article 390),
13. the shareholder's counterproposal (proposal) or its essence, if longer than 100 words, or possibly a position of the board of directors according to article 362 and article 407 paragraph 2,
14. an addition to general meeting agenda according to article 369 paragraph 2 (based on the request of a qualified shareholder),
15. invitation of a general meeting according to article 406 paragraph 1,
16. cancellation or postponement of a general meeting according to article 410 paragraph 1,
17. the financial statement or selected data from it (article 436 and 437) together with a report on business activity (article 436 and 437),
18. information about a preemptive right of shareholders to subscribe new shares (article 485 paragraph 1),
19. a call for shareholders to submit shares (article 500, 526, 537 and 542) or a call for takeover of shares (article 502 and 537),
20. the results drawing shares (article 528),
21. delisting of shares in case of lowering registered capital (article532 paragraph 2),
22. declaring invalidity of shares and interim certificates (article 346 and 538),
23. the sum by which registered capital is being lowered an the corresponding nominal value of shares with a simultaneous increase and lowering of registered capital (article 548).

Among other acts, which offer the option of publication on the website as a possibility for discharging duty, it is possible to mention act no. 125/2008 Sb., on transformations of business companies and cooperatives, where it is possible to deduce from article 33a paragraph 1 that the duty of publication of a project of transformation is also discharged by publication on the website.

In case of failing to comply with the new obligation, a joint stock company may face a sanction. The sanction for failing to publish data on a website is governed by act no. 304/2013, on public registers of legal entities and natural persons, which says in article 107, with reference to article 104, that: “The stipulation of article 104 is applied similarly, if the registered person does not state on its business documents the data specified by another act, or does not comply with the duty of continuous publication of obligatory facts in a way enabling remote access according to the act, which governs the legal relations of business corporations and cooperatives.” The sanction is disciplinary fine, and a fine up to CZK 100,000 may be imposed.

Despite the fact these stipulations oblige joint stock companies to publish the specified data on their website, a number of related unclarities remain unresolved, which the experts perceive and point out in their publications and treatises. The following questions can be included among the most interesting ones:

1. How to inform the users of these data, on which electronic address he will find them?
2. Does this duty apply to all electronic addresses of the respective business corporation, or is the duty discharged by publication only on one electronic address?
3. How to come to terms with the fact that some information, which business corporations must publish, may represent sensitive data, or may infringe on business confidentiality?

These questions remain for discussion.