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.

Panicking amid the health crisis, company managers can easily feel pressured to take some “seemingly obvious” legal or business measures to resolve their situation. However, these measures often involve serious legal risks and should be approached with caution.

Protecting workplaces and businesses is of foremost importance amidst fighting COVID-19. In order to so, Hungary – like most of other developed countries – also introduced numerous emergency tax measures in the past few weeks, as follows:

With regard to the state of emergency the Hungarian Government has passed several employment related laws. According to Government Decree no. 47/2020, the provisions of the Labour Code shall be applied with several modifications during the term of state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The purpose of the modifications is to make the employment regulations more flexible and to enable the employers and employees to adapt to the challenges caused by the pandemic.

In the third week of March 2020, the prime minister of Hungary has announced that certain measures will be issued by the Government to ease the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The occurrence and rapid spread of the COVID-19 disease and related legislation force companies and other business actors to rethink the method of their operation. The Hungarian Government declared a State of Danger through Government Decree No. 40/2020. (III.11.) and provided other provisions on the operation of legal entities in Government Decree No. 102/2020. (IV.10.) (hereinafter: “Government Decree”) in connection with the current situation. In this guide we intend to present the most important changes introduced by the Government Decree.

On March 11, 2020, the Government of Hungary declared a state of emergency for the entire territory of Hungary in connection with the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, and at the same time a special legal order. The new type of coronavirus and some related precautionary measures have completely overturned the market in a number of markets: in some sectors (e.g. aviation, event management, other tourism-related services, automotive, etc.) production of goods/provision of services has almost completely stopped, while in other areas, the sudden and extreme increase in consumer demand is causing disruptions (e.g. mouth masks, hand sanitizers, durable foods, toilet paper, medicines / vitamins).

The impending economic crisis is expected to upset the financial position of many businesses. At these companies, the responsibilities of the company manager will also change: in a near-bankruptcy situation, the manager is obliged to take into account not only the interests of the company but those of the creditors as well. But what is simple on paper is not so straightforward in practice.

“These times are difficult for all governments and it’s very difficult to predict what will occur in the next few weeks, let alone more than that,” begins Pal Jalsovszky, Managing Partner of Jalsovszky Law in Budapest.

Contributed by Kinstellar.