To support the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, on 26 June 2024, the Hungarian National Bank issued two new regulations, incorporating changes in domestic legislation, guidelines of the European Banking Authority and lessons learned from supervisory experience.

On August 1, 2024, Filip & Company and CMS announced that Banca Transilvania's purchase of OTP Bank Romania (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 21, 2024) has now closed.

Since 1 July 2023, interest income has been subject to a 13% social contribution tax (‘szocho’) in addition to the 15% personal income tax (‘szja’). Originally this was only for the duration of the emergency caused by the armed conflict in Ukraine. However, a new act published in the Hungarian Official Gazette on 18 June 2024, changed the situation.

The EU’s Al Act (Regulation 2024/1689) enters into force today, August 1, 2024. The groundbreaking Act is designed to ensure that AI systems are safe, transparent, and governed by rules that protect fundamental rights. The Act categorizes AI applications into risk-based tiers, with each tier subject to different levels of regulatory scrutiny and compliance requirements.

In July 2024, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office began sending formal notifications via email regarding changes to the statistical codes of various activities. Although the required procedure takes only a few minutes, non-compliant companies may face penalties.

Kapolyi has advised VGD Hungary on its sale to WTS Klient.

Taylor Wessing has advised Recorde Asset Management and Forestay Group on the acquisition of a building in Budapest’s Gellert Hill area set to become the Moricz Student Living student residence and office building. Taylor Wessing, working with Kalman & Partners, also advised Recorde and Forstay on the acquisition financing obtained from Hypo Bank Noe.

From 29 July 2024, the administrative service fees relating to procedures for land registry, plot formation, land surveying and mapping, and the provision of data from the land register and the state databases will be increased significantly.

Taylor Wessing has advised VakifBank International on the implementation of a core banking system.

In its latest decision of May 16, 2024 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reflected on the Hungarian foreign VAT refund regime. ECJ established once again that non-compliance with formal requirements should not prevent reimbursement of VAT provided that substantive requirements can and have been satisfied.

Slaughter and May’s Victoria MacDuff, Richard Hilton, and Adam Sriskandan Talk About the Deal of the Year in Hungary.

High-quality, diverse, and extensive datasets are fundamental for improving machine learning model performance, and web scraping helps gather the necessary data to develop more robust and generalizable models. Web scraping pose different legal challenges, such as data protection, copyright and contractual law related issues. Intellectual property concerns arise as website content, like text, images, and data, is often copyrighted, and scraping without the copyright owner’s permission may lead to infringement claims. Further to this, many websites prohibit scraping in their terms of service, and violating these terms can also result in legal action against the operators of web scrapers.

ACI Partners Managing Partner Igor Odobescu, Nagy es Trocsanyi Founding Partner Peter Nagy, Kinstellar Partner Radovan Grbovic, Law Office Vujacic Partner Sasa Vujacic, and Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii Partner Robert Rosu discuss recent litigation trends across CEE, driven by the impact of economic shifts and regulatory changes in their jurisdictions.

In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. As partner departures are inherent to the workings of any law firm, and likely demand clear strategies for navigating, this time around we asked: What are the three most important items on your checklist when a Partner leaves your firm?

Wolf Theiss, working with Hughes Hubbard & Reed and Plesner Advokatpartnerselskab, has advised Standard Motor Products on its acquisition of AX V Nissens III APS for approximately USD 388 million in cash from Nordic private equity firm Axcel and the Nissen family.

Schoenherr has advised Bontexgeo on the sale of an industrial asset in Tiszaujvaros. The undisclosed buyer was reportedly advised by sole practitioner Livia Bretscher.

In a recent judicial case, the courts examined the legality of a termination notice delivered via postal service, where the core issue revolves around whether the employer fulfilled the legal requirement of notifying the employee of the termination of employment according to the Hungarian Labor Code.

Some segments of the real estate market are expected to improve slowly, while ESG considerations are becoming increasingly important, according to the DLA Piper Hungary Real Estate Intelligence Report 2024. These are the key trends shaping the Hungarian real estate market.