The Hungarian Government introduced two special taxes from 1 May 2020 in order to tackle the financial effects of the coronavirus disease: the special tax on credit institutions and the tax on commercial chains. According to the official communication of the Ministry of Finance „the goal is that the burden of these taxes – that contribute to the improvement of the balance of public finances – are borne not by the consumers but by the actors that are capable of such.”

Former Dentons Partner Edward Keller has joined alternative investment firm Alpha Blue Ocean as its General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer.

Hungary announced and successfully notified to the European Commission a HUF 50 billion (approximately EUR 140 million) aid scheme in April 2020. The subsidy to improve competitiveness has been designed to help the medium-sized and large enterprises that are active in the manufacturing or business services sector that face difficulties due to loss of income and liquidity resulting from the economic impact of the pandemic.

With in-store shopping often relegated to a secondary role, online forms of trading have come to the fore of late. Nowadays, merchants that don’t adopt web commerce solutions alongside or instead of their physical stores can find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the market. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that besides implementing various IT developments and having to organise home deliveries, running a webshop requires some major preparatory work in the legal area as well.

The focus today is on the COVID-19 world epidemic, and the special legal orders implemented by the affected countries. While Hungary has also adopted numerous extraordinary and temporary measures in this respect, attention must also be drawn to legislative developments which are not related to the coronavirus. The Parliament has recently adopted a new act which amends the Hungarian Competition Act ("Competition Act") and brings numerous changes to Hungarian competition law.

In The Corner Office we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: What major initiative or new plan does your office (or firm) plan – if any – for 2020?

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, most CEE/SEE countries have introduced provisions to close certain premises, while only some have banned the termination of leases in order to protect tenants who have lost revenues.

The Hungarian Government has established a so-called Economy Protection Action Plan in order to respond to the economic situation caused by coronavirus. One of the main pillars of this Action Plan is a state aid for employees for the purpose of retaining workforce set out in Government Decree No. 105/2020 (“State Aid”). As a response to the criticism made by several employers addressed to the criteria for application and granting the state aid, the legal regulations has been recently modified by the Government Decree No. 141/2020.

With respect to the declared state of danger and in order to alleviate the economic difficulties resulting from the Covid-19 epidemic, the government has taken several measures, the following document summarizes the most significant provisions of governmental decrees in the field of labour law and related to the operation of legal persons.

The Hungarian Parliament has started the discussion of the bill that is implementing the provisions of Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) (the “Directive”). According to the Directive, Member States must ensure their compliance with the Directive by 19 September 2020.

The extent to which a judge may be active in obtaining the facts necessary to adjudicate a dispute or in finding the legal norms on which a decision is based is a fundamental question of any legal proceeding. Can judges invite the parties to present facts which they consider essential? Or can a judge tell the parties that in his or her view the dispute can be settled on the basis of legal provisions which they have not invoked? These fundamental questions apply to arbitrators as well. In this respect, does arbitration give arbitrators a smaller or greater role than that which judges have? Perhaps surprisingly, arbitrators may in fact have stronger powers in this respect than state-authorized judges.

Former Counsels David Kohegyi, Szilard Kui, and Viktor Radics have been promoted to Local Partners at DLA Piper Hungary.

With respect to the declared state of danger and in order to alleviate the economic difficulties resulting from the Covid-19 epidemic, the government has taken several measures, the following document summarizes the most significant provisions of governmental decrees in the field of labour law effective as of and related to the operation of legal persons.

Everything that used to be simple and straightforward when concluding or completing M&A transactions poses major challenges to market participants in today’s crisis circumstances. New legal and technical solutions have been designed to overcome these difficulties, some of which are expected to remain with us even after the crisis.

At the end of March 2020, the Hungarian Government has submitted to the Parliament a bill on the arrangement of the ownership of properties affected by land use right of a producing co-operative (in Hungarian: termelőszövetkezet) and on the amendment of other acts of land-related subject.

Balazs Toth has joined Telenor Common Operation as its new Legal Director in Hungary.

The independent administrative and labour courts ceased to exist in Hungary as of 31 March 2020, and in the future, administrative and employment legal actions will be brought before regional courts. All cases that were in the sole jurisdiction of the Budapest-Capital Administrative and Labour Courts have been transferred to the sole jurisdiction of the Budapest-Capital Regional Court.

The Hungarian Government introduced changes in procedural related regulations on 31 March 2020 by adopting Government Decree No. 74/2020 (III.31.). These newly introduced amendments affect civil law court procedures.