HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
any set-off claim and counterclaim) may be amended only if the amendment is in a direct causal relationship with a new statement as to the facts of the case by any of the parties or if the amendment is necessitated by the court’s conduct of the proceedings affecting the parties’ statements as to the facts and the law. Further prerequisites of the amendment of the claim are that the amended claim must arise from the same legal relationship and the court must have competence for the amended claim too. Any amendment must be filed within a deadline of 15 days after becoming aware of the grounds for the amendment. In addition, amendments may be made excep- tionally in appeal proceedings: • when the amendments relate to a new factual statement by a party; • when the court of first instance considered a fact ex officio or deviated from the parties’ interpretation of the law or from the request without having informed the parties before- hand (provided that these procedural steps were admissible); or • when the appeal court informs the parties of its intention to take the aforementioned steps. 3.5 Rules of Service Service by the Court by Mail Service is the responsibility of the court. If the court admits the statement of claim, the court serves it on the defendant, at the same time requesting the defendant to file a statement of defence (within 45 days), with one prolongation option of another 45 days in complex matters. By default, court documents are served by (reg- istered) mail, but parties can also collect docu- ments themselves at the court. If a party has a
legal representative, documents shall be served on the legal representative. The legal representa- tive has access to the electronic court file system and, after the representative’s first appearance, service is effectuated exclusively over that sys- tem. In case of legal persons, documents shall be served to the seat, or if not possible, on the If a lawsuit is to be served on a defendant out- side Hungary, service is subject to the European Service Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2020/1784) within the EU or international treaties outside the EU, notably the 1965 Hague Service Convention. 3.6 Failure to Respond If the statement of claim has been served on the defendant and the defendant does not file a statement of defence (nor a set-off claim), the court holds no hearing but ex officio renders a default judgment granting the requests in the statement of claim. Any party may challenge such default judgment by filing a written objec- tion within 15 days of service of the default judg- ment. Together with the objection, a statement of defence (or a set-off claim) must also be filed. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Collective Actions in the Code of Civil Procedure statutory representative. Service Outside Hungary Two types of collective actions are regulated in the Code of Civil Procedure: actions brought in the public interest and so-called “associated” actions (joint process). Actions brought in the public interest If the possibility of bringing an action for public interest is provided for in a legislative act (such provisions are included in the Civil Code and Acts on consumers, unfair commercial practices and the restriction of competition and the Hungarian
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