The Cybersecurity Act imposes new requirements on many companies regarding the operation of their electronic information systems. Organizations have until the end of 2023 to prepare to comply with the new rules.

Kinstellar Partner Balazs Sepsey has been appointed the new Office Managing Partner of the firm’s Budapest Office. Sepsey is taking over from Kristof Ferenczi, who has recently been appointed Kinstellar’s Firm Managing Partner (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on December 8, 2023).

Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners has advised ITK Holding on its acquisition of Omnibus Hungaria Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato, a joint venture of EvoBus and Pappas Holding. Noerr reportedly advised the sellers.

At the II National Regulators Conference it was announced that the Digital Citizenship programme to be launched between July and September 2024 and the necessary legislation to be submitted to the Parliament in November 2023. With this step the Hungarian Government follows the trend, where citizens are dealing at an increasing rate with administrative cases on their mobile phones.

There is a bill on the new Hungarian Architecture Act, which would replace the acts on Engineers and Professional Chambers, on the Shaping and Protection of the Built Environment and on the Protection of Townscape, and will consolidate their provisions in a modernised and clear code.

Schoenherr has advised the MET Group on the completion of its photovoltaic plants located in Buzsak, Gerjen, and Sojtor, Hungary, with a total capacity of almost 169 megawatts and spanning 134 land plots with a total area of almost 310 hectares.

With CMS’s recently published European M&A Outlook report taking the temperature of the M&A activity across the continent, CMS Romania Managing Partner Horea Popescu and CMS Vienna Partner Alexander Rakosi share their insights on M&A trends in the CEE region.

In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. Shifting our focus to the financial aspects of legal work, we asked: What percentage of your issued bills end up being overdue, what percentage end up never paid, and what is your firm’s/office’s standard methodology to handle both cases?

Under Hungarian private law, legal relationships aimed at performing various tasks on the basis of instructions are generally based on either employment contracts regulated by Act I of 2012 of the Labor Code (Labor Code) or services agreements governed by Act V of 2013 of the Civil Code.

Nagy & Trocsanyi has announced the appointment of its new Managing Partner – Balazs Karsai – set to take over stewardship of the firm on January 1, 2024.

An increase in foreign investor activity, energy sector regulation shifts, as well as the incoming challenges brought by the impending ESG Act and NIS2 cybersecurity directive are all keeping lawyers in Hungary quite busy, according to Partner Gergely Szabo of Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners.

On 19 October 2023, Ambassador Harry Alex Rusz, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the Council of Europe deposited the instrument of ratification of the Amending Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data.

NH Partners has advised Waberer's International on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Petrolsped.

Kinstellar has announced that  Budapest's Kristof Ferenczi has been appointed as the new Firm Managing Partner, succeeding Patrik Bolf in that position.

In a recent case, the Hungarian Supreme Court had to decide whether a Hungarian undergraduate student studying economics and carrying out international forex transactions can be considered as a “consumer” and thus eligible for starting litigation at his residence, in Hungary against the foreign platform service provider?

Wolf Theiss has advised the Kyoto Group on the agreement to deliver its Heatcube thermal energy storage system to Hungarian food ingredient producer KALL Ingredients.

On 19 July 2023, the Constitutional Court established that certain provisions of the act on public construction investments are unconstitutional, therefore, it could not enter into force as planned on 1 August 2023.

In import-export transactions across Europe, it is common for sellers to protect the assets they have sold by retaining the ownership title until the buyer has paid the full purchase price. Retention of title allows sellers to reclaim the assets if the buyer fails to pay, and even if the buyer goes bankrupt before payment is made. In Hungary, however, such an arrangement can lead to unpleasant surprises for sellers.