Linda Szegvari is the Chief Legal Counsel of MET Hungary, an energy trading company that was established in 2007. The company is a subsidiary of the MET Group, which is present in 28 markets.

Hungary's Ban Karika law firm has joined Act’s Legal's European alliance.

The last 18 months have seen significant interest and activity in the Hungarian start-up ecosystem.

In The Corner Office, we invite Managing Partners at law firms from across the region to share information about their careers, management styles, and strategies. Our question this time: “What mistake do young associates commonly make that is most frustrating for you?”

As a result of the new Hungarian Code of Civil Procedure, from 1 January 2018 the parties of a dispute may conclude a settlement in civil cases before a public notary without initiating a court proceeding in the framework of a new non-litigious procedure.

The revised payment services directive (“PSD2”) has already been implemented in Hungary, most of the provisions will be effective on 13 January 2018. PSD2 will open up the payment market to new players (“fintech companies”) in the payment services, particularly to payment initiation service providers (“PISPs”) and to account information service providers (“AISPs”), and introduces strict security requirements for the initiation and processing of electronic payments (strong customer authentication – “SCA”). 

In November 2017 a new government decree entered into force on the status, organisation and tasks of the Hungarian State Treasury (Treasury). 

The Directive 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure (“Directive”) was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 8 June 2016 and entered into force on 5 July 2016.

“If I would need to bet on what would be the most popular transaction type this year in Hungary, I would say M&A deals,” says Partner Szabolcs Mestyan of Lakatos, Koves and Partners.

A proposal on the modification of the Hungarian Cultural Heritage Act has been submitted to the Hungarian Parliament in October 2017. The purpose of the modification is to restructure the potential participants in the system of the performance of archaeological tasks. 

Currently the provisions of the Act on the General Rules of Administrative Proceedings and Services are applicable as underlying rules in most of the procedural matters in respect of administrative customs.

The traditional methods of tax audits and tax litigation in Hungary will soon be a matter of the past, as three new codes have recently been adopted by Parliament and will come into force on January 1, 2018. Naturally, they are a hot topic in the industry.  

A new decree was issued by the Ministry for National Economy in October 2017, introducing a three-level, standardized approach relating to the transfer pricing documentation (including the master file, the local file, and the country specific report) from 2018.

According to the current wording of the Code of the Civil Procedure, a private document, until proven otherwise, must have full probative force, verifying that the issuer has in fact made the statement that the document contains, or undertakes to consider himself bound by such statement, provided that the rules regarding the form of using witnesses is observed.

Reti, Antall and Partners, the Hungarian member of PwC Legal, has a new Managing Partner and a new Partner.

Based on the recently modified Hungarian VAT Act, in case of invoices issued in connection with transactions between resident taxpayers, the issuer of the invoice is obliged to report data from the invoice to the tax authority if the output tax is equal or above HUF 100,000. The goal of this obligation is the reduction of tax evasion and the whitening of the economy. 

According to a recent proposal submitted to the Hungarian Parliament, the Hungarian Government intends to launch the electronic procurement system in April 2018.

The entire Budapest office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, led by Partners David Dederick and Konrad Siegler and including three other senior counsel and 15 lawyers and the entire office staff, will join Bird & Bird in Budapest on February 1. Weil will close its Budapest office.