From 28 March 2024, businesses operating in Hungary will be required to offer services by the state-owned enterprise Hungarian Post ("Magyar Posta") as a delivery option for consumers using their online stores. The text of the new provision is concise and has raised several questions.

Did you know that the CEE Q1 leaderboards are available through the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website?

Miklos Klenanc – a former Attorney at Law with PwC Legal in Hungary – has joined the Budapest office of Schoenherr as a Senior Attorney at Law to lead the firm's local M&A practice.

Since early 2024, Hungarian legislative efforts have brought about several updates to consumer protection regulations. Ranging from novelties in consumer complaints and related processes, increased consumer protections fines, expanded rights of the consumer protection and competition authority to an unexpected obligation imposed on e-commerce providers to include the local postal delivery provider as a delivery option, changes to the sector have been diverse.

Schoenherr has advised Switzerland-based MET Group subsidiary Oberon Solar Park on its acquisition of 52 hectares of land in Kaba, eastern Hungary. Sole practitioner Zsolt Gaal reportedly advised an undisclosed agricultural entrepreneur on the sale.

Former Nagy & Trocsanyi Partner Viktor Jeger has joined the Lakatos Koves & Partners Dispute Resolution team.

The governmental decree published on 22 February (No. 33/2024 (II. 22.)) sets forth the establishment of a new project company to manage the provision of inpatient pharmaceuticals in all public hospitals, as well as those private hospitals that choose to join the initiative. The Decree is a follow up to the amendments in the Medicines Thrift Act (Act XCVIII of 2006) from July 2023, which stipulated the basic conditions for a “unified institutional pharmacy service” for public hospitals. The project company shall be operational from January 2025.

New technologies, spearheaded by artificial intelligence, are shaping the legal dialogue surrounding innovation, consumer protection, and the integrity of market competition within Hungary and the European Union as a whole according to KCG Partners Founding Partner Rita Parkanyi.

Herbst Kinsky, working with Orrick, has advised the Terreal Group and its main shareholders on the antitrust aspects of the full sale of its businesses in Poland, Hungary, and Austria to Swisspor. Schoenherr advised Swisspor Holding on the acquisition.

Deloitte Legal has advised IPCOM on the acquisition of Hungary's Dualinvest.

In The Debrief, our Practice Leaders across CEE share updates on recent and upcoming legislation, consider the impact of recent court decisions, showcase landmark projects, and keep our readers apprised of the latest developments impacting their respective practice areas.

In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. As we bid farewell to 2023, this time around we turn our attention forward: What is your one main wish for 2024 and what do you see as the biggest potential risk?

In our Looking In series, we talk to Partners from outside CEE who are keeping an eye on the region (and often pop up in our deal ticker) to learn how they perceive CEE markets and their evolution. For this issue, we sat down with Slaughter and May Partners Jonathan Marks and Richard Jones.

If someone is unable to pay their outstanding and due debts (or is just partly able to do so), that person is considered insolvent. This applies to companies and to natural persons as well. The number of companies that had to cease operations because of insolvency increased in 2023. Although the Hungarian legal environment provides several solutions to this problem, these have different effectiveness and have different consequences for both debtors and creditors. Below is a general overview of the four typical procedures for dealing with insolvency in the current Hungarian law.

Today, more and more companies are trying to convince consumers with the pretence of a sustainable future and environmental awareness. However, in many cases, there is no real responsibility behind such marketing activities, which are simply intended as an effective advertising ploy to make green claims.

The Hungarian Parliament adopted the bill on Hungarian architecture on 12 December 2023, and the Hungarian Architecture Act was officially published 10 days later. The date of entry into force is different for certain sections of the Act, namely 30 December 2023, 1 October 2024, 1 January 2026 and finally 1 July 2027.

Due to the holiday season and the legislative dumping at the end of the year, the important new milestone in the ESG field did not receive much publicity, even though Act CVIII of 2023, the ESG Act, which is the first comprehensive Hungarian regulation in the field, entered into force as of January 1, 2024. The field, which until now has mostly been covered by EU sources of law and in one Hungarian law, has finally ceased to be a stepchild and has been given the first comprehensive and unified law, which the legislator himself named the ESG Act.

The new provisions on compulsory environmental insurance entered into force on 1 January 2024 through the modification of the Waste and a new Government Decree.