Slaughter and May has advised Vodafone on its acquisition of Liberty Global's operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. Vodafone was advised by Lakatos, Koves and Partners on Hungarian legal aspects of the acquisition. Liberty Global was represented by Freshfields, with US support from Ropes & Gray.

From 2019 the turnover threshold of tax exemption may continue to rise which would allow more micro and small business to issue VAT-exempt invoices in the framework of the low tax-bracket scheme. Tax-payer companies under the low tax-bracket will benefit most of the change, even though the regulation does not directly affect the legislation applicable on them.

As of 1 July 2018, the provisions regulating the obligations of travel agencies in the Hungarian Commerce Act will be amended in order to comply with the EU directive on package travel and linked travel arrangements.

Update on Hungary's solar boom – significant benefit to photovoltaic projects licensed under mandatory offtake system upon applications submitted before 2017.

Sar & Partners has represented Herend Porcelain Manufactory in litigation against ZARA Home Ltd. on intellectual property rights related to an alleged infringement of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory collection.

On 12 March 2018 the Hungarian National Bank (“MNB”) published its recommendation on the criteria on how to stipulate the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance or other comparable guarantee. The addressees of recommendation are fintech companies, i.e. payment initiation service providers (PISPs) and account information service providers (AISPs).

This mostly occurs in the case of high volume projects where more than one general contractor performs construction work in parallel on the construction site (“multiple contractors”). It is possible to divide the tasks in a way that the contractors perform the same works but in different locations (e.g. different contractors for different buildings), while it may also happen that the client requires different contractors for different branches or distinct tasks (e.g. deep foundation phase, low voltage, BMS).

On the first anniversary of the introduction of Hungary’s long-awaited renewable energy support scheme (known as “METAR”), we look back at its first year and ahead to the future of renewable energy in Hungary from a legal perspective.

Francois d’Ornano, together with almost the entire Budapest office of Jeantet, has left the French firm to launch the D’Ornano Partners law firm, with offices in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania.

Balint Halasz and Pal Szabo have been promoted to Partner at Bird & Bird Hungary.

HBK Partners and Kertesz & Partners have advised Status Power Invest Zrt. on its acquisition of an additional 36% stake in Matrai Power Plant from EP Power Europe A.S., a Czech energy holding company. The seller was represented by Lakatos, Koves & Partners.

On May 1, 2018, Erika Papp will replace Gabriella Ormai as the new Managing Partner of CMS's Budapest office.

CMS and Freshfields have advised global private equity firm Cinven on the acquisition of Partner in Pet Food, a European pet food manufacturer, from Pamplona Capital Management. Kirkland & Ellis has advised Pamplona on the sale. 

“A new Civil Procedure Act concerning litigation processes is keeping lawyers wired right now in Hungary,” reports Kinga Hetenyi, Managing Partner at Schoenherr Budapest.

On Thursday, April 19, 2018, CEE Legal Matters hosted a round table discussion at the Dentons office in Budapest with leading real estate experts in the market.

Fighting cartels in public procurement requires 21st century tools. The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) and the Public Procurement Authority of Hungary (KH) cooperate to promote fair competition in public procurement procedures. KH runs a mobile application named “Daily public procurement”, which serves as a news channel, providing daily updates for the parties interested in public procurement. The app is available both on iOS and Android free of charge from May 2017.

On the basis of the information published by the Hungarian Ministry of National Economy, the National Tax and Customs Office (in Hungarian: NAV) has introduced a paper-free, online audit system.

HBK Partners has advised MKB Bank on the sale of its non-performing retail mortgage loan portfolio, secured mostly by residential mortgages, to MKK Hungarian Debt Management Company. Sarhegyi and Partners has advised MKK Zrt. on the acquisition. The face value exceeded EUR 300 million.