HUNGARY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tamás Éless, Zsolt Farkas, Sarolta Szabó and Lili Bischof, Oppenheim Law Firm
The court may order this form of participation if the conditions for conducting a hearing via an electronic communications network are met, and the hearing can proceed without a court-provided location or technical support, provided that only the person being heard is present at the remote site. Under this procedure, the connection between the court and the participant must provide real-time audio and video transmission. The court may only order simplified telecommunication presence with the prior consent of the person concerned. The presiding judge or court clerk must be able to verify the participant’s identity, the voluntary nature of their participation, and the absence of undue influence. The hearing cannot continue if there are doubts about these factors or if unauthorised persons are present. According to the rules coming into effect on 1 January 2026, members of the public may also participate in court hearings through an online platform, provided that the necessary technical conditions are available at the court. The legislative justification explains that by establishing online public access to hearings, the audience will be able to participate remotely. However, this is conditional upon the availability of the neces- sary technical infrastructure at the given court. Until such technical infrastructure is installed in all court- rooms of all courts, online participation may only take place in courtrooms equipped with the required technology, and it may also be hindered by technical malfunctions.
The connection will provide a one-way audio and vid- eo communication between the presiding court and the online audience, operated by the National Office for the Judiciary. For any given hearing, no more than the first 100 successfully registered adult natural per- sons may participate as an online audience. To pre- vent potential abuses it will be necessary to allow the parties involved in the proceedings to review the list of online participants in advance (upon request) and indicate if they identify any individual whose presence could likely prejudice the fair conduct of the proceed- ings. While establishing online public access to court hear- ings, it is also necessary to ensure an adequate level of protection for personal rights. Therefore, a prohibi- tion on recording, as well as a prohibition on mak- ing the hearing’s audio and video materials public, will be imposed, and the audience must be warned in advance about the legal consequences of violating these prohibitions. As part of this Act, the Criminal Code will explicitly designate as a criminal offence the misuse of personal data committed through image or audio recordings, or both, made in violation of laws regarding court hearings or online public access to hearings.
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