HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: Tamás Éless, Sarolta Édua Szabó, Ulrike Rein and Zsolt Farkas, Oppenheim Law Firm
Oppenheim Law Firm Károlyi utca 12 Budapest H-1053 Hungary Tel: +36 1 486 2200 Email: office@oppenheimlegal.com Web: www.oppenheimlegal.com
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
sector, disputes arising from large investments (roads, railways, etc) regulated by FIDIC-based contracts are the most common, along with disputes arising from a lack of capacity. Given the lack of published statistics on the sectoral distribution of arbitration cases, the exact distribution between each industry and the exact involvement of the main industries cannot be determined. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions Since the institutional reforms introduced in 2018, the Commercial Arbitration Court has had exclusive competence in almost all matters (except for disputes relating to agriculture, sports and concessions). There - fore, it is the Commercial Arbitration Court that is most used for international arbitration as well. According to the available statistics, about 16% of cases brought before the Commercial Arbitration Court since 2018 have been between international parties. 1.4 National Courts The Hungarian Arbitration Act designates the Buda - pest Metropolitan Court as the competent court for certain court proceedings relating to arbitration pro - ceedings, including in an action to set aside the arbi - tral award and in cases where the court: • acts as the appointing authority; • decides on a motion to challenge an arbitrator; • finds that the arbitrator’s mandate has been termi - nated for any other reason; or • decides on an objection to the arbitration panel’s competence.
Litigation is currently more common in Hungary than arbitration, but the popularity of the latter is constantly growing. Furthermore, Hungarian parties are increas - ingly confident in the efficiency and speed of this dis - pute settlement method. The recent reform of the Arbitration Act and the insti - tutional system has also increased the popularity of arbitration in Hungary, and the latest changes to the Code of Civil Procedure, which have made litigation less effective and more rigid in many aspects, are also leading to a tendency for parties to opt for arbitration. According to statistical data published on the website of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 94 cases were initiated before the permanent arbitral tribunal attached to the chamber (ie, the Commercial Arbitration Court) in 2018, 67 cases in 2019, 85 cases in 2020, 81 cases in 2021, 66 cases in 2022 and 75 cases in 2023. About 20% of the cases in 2023 were between international parties, and all parties were Hungarian in 80% of cases. The statistical data on the number and composition of cases initiated before the permanent arbitration court in 2024 has not yet been published. 1.2 Key Industries The key industries in which the parties have frequently used arbitration in the past year as an alternative dis - pute resolution method are the construction sector and long-term business leases. In the construction
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