Following the approval of a directive in June 2020, consumers across the EU will be granted broader access to collective redress.

On 24 June 2020 the European Council amended Directive 2011/16/EU, in order to defer certain deadlines for filing and exchanging information under the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (“DAC”). The postponement is justified by the difficulties Member States and businesses are facing with during the pandemic.

The Hungarian Parliament passed a legislation on the ban of single-use plastic in Hungary on 7 July 2020 as part of the Climate and Nature Protection Action Plan. The legislation was meant to be accepted earlier this year, however then the proposal was withdrew because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an earlier press release from the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, the “Hungarian Government is committed to defend the created world”.

The amendments to the Hungarian Bankruptcy Act enter into force on 1 August 2020, aiming at modernizing the rules of the insolvency law, maintaining employment and facilitating the agreement between the creditors and the debtor in the course of the bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings.

Since the state of emergency was terminated on 18 June 2020, the special employment law provisions introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic are no longer applicable. In particular, the employer is no longer entitled to unilaterally request the employee to work from home.

Fixed-Rate Tax of Low Tax-Bracket Enterprises (acronym in Hungarian: KATA) has become widely popular since its introduction in 2013 due to its beneficial tax rate and simple administration. By the end of 2019, 377 thousand entrepreneurs opted for this taxation mode, however, according to the Ministry of Finance, 40% of those switched previous employment status to KATA taxation. Since KATA was introduced to support micro enterprises and not to be an alternative to employment, the Ministry of Finance is set to act against this trend.

The Hungarian Parliament is discussing a proposal on the amendment of the Act on Electronic Communications in order to implement the regulations of EU Directive 2018/1972. This latter Directive was adopted by the European Union in December 2018 to set up the European Electronic Communications Code. Member Sates shall implement its regulations until 21 December 2020 after a 2-year long preparation period.

Due to the practical difficulties created by the lockdown measures taken against the coronavirus pandemic, the European Council has agreed that the VAT e-commerce package should apply from July 1, 2021, rather than January 1, 2021.

In order to execute the Hungarian Economy Protection Action Plan, some provisions of the Hungarian Bankruptcy Act and the Company Registry Act must be applied differently based on a government decree adopted in the end of May 2020 (Government Decree). As a result, during the state of emergency, a creditor may submit an application for the opening of a liquidation proceeding only if the deadline determined by the creditor in the payment notification and the subsequent 75 days expired without any result. In addition, the amount of the claim must exceed HUF 400,000.

The Hungarian Parliament accepted a bill on 16 June 2020, which would enable the creation of special industrial zones. “The designated special industrial zones will be contributing to the restarting of the economy, creation of new jobs, and also the preservation of the existing jobs” stands in the press release. According to the legislation, the main goal of the regulation is to facilitate a fairer distribution of tax income realized from greater investments as these zones would be no longer under the control of the local council.

The Hungarian Government promulgated a decree (229/2020) entered into force on 1 June 2020, amending the decrees on certain procedural measures in force during an emergency (74/2020.) and on certain penitentiary rules in connection with the declaration of a state of emergency (90/2020.). The amendment regulates civil court proceedings for a transitional period, since on 26 May 2020 two bills related to the termination of the state of emergency were submitted to the Parliament, which define rules of court proceedings for a longer period in the future. As a result, the rules of this decree will only be used until the two bills mentioned above are accepted by the Parliament.

The Hungarian Government issued a new decree on 25 May 2020 (“Decree”), in which restrictions on certain transactions involving foreign investors are introduced.

The coronavirus pandemic has been affecting both domestic and international trade and commerce around the world. States have reacted with robust mitigation measures, including closing borders, implementing a range of travel bans and engaging a myriad of internal domestic health and wellbeing procedures. These measures are causing unprecedented disruption to the trade, transport, labor market, production and supply chains.

In the few months since Hungary’s Private Foundation Act came into force on March 29, 2019, it has already significantly grown in terms of financial importance.

“To be honest, I think the government handled the crisis as well as possible," says Levente Csengery, Partner at KCG Partners. “The COVID-19 regulations do exactly what they’re supposed to – protect public health and keep us all alive, and they’re working.“ At the time of writing, Hungary has had 3535 confirmed cases (and 460 deaths) from the new coronavirus. 

On 4 May 2020 the European Data Protection Board (‘EDPB’) issued important Guidelines on the practice of websites using so-called “cookie walls”.

The coronavirus epidemic has shown that implementing appropriate occupational safety and health measures and providing adequate conditions are essential in all sectors regardless of the activity. After the coronavirus outbreak, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) had published a guidance for the workplace. Now, a couple of month later, at the end of April 2020, the EU-OSHA issued guidance on coming back to work. The goal of these non-binding guidelines is to help employers and workers to stay safe and healthy in a working environment that has been changed significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of April 2020, the Hungarian Government submitted to the Parliament a bill on the termination of the undivided joint ownership on agricultural lands and the clarification of the data of the rightholders of properties deemed agricultural land in the land registry, aiming at the establishment of a clear and transparent land ownership structure.