HUNGARY Trends and Developments Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
EU law is also highly relevant for, inter alia, the private enforcement of competition law (eg, in the Hungarian venues of the Europe-wide truck cartel litigations). A recent preliminary ruling (in case C-267/20) has been rendered, for exam- ple, concerning the statute of limitations that is bound to have an impact on ongoing cartel litigation throughout the entire Hungarian court system. The Continuing Evolution of Arbitration Procedure and the New Rules of Proceedings of the Arbitration Court Attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry The antecedent of the Arbitration Act, promul- gated in 1994, was already based on the (1985 version of the) UNCITRAL Model Law. The new Arbitration Act, applicable to arbitrations that commenced on 1 January 2018 and thereafter, reflects the 2006 amendments to the Model Law and largely follows the Model Law, albeit there are some national peculiarities. Some national provisions in addition to the Model Law-based regime The time limit to make an application for setting aside an award is 60 days from the service of the award. In addition to the grounds for set- ting aside adopted from the Model Law, a new ground has been introduced (as of June 2023): when the arbitral tribunal did not take into con- sideration an expert determination provided by the so-called Expert Body for the Certification of Performance (ie, did not include the grounds for relying on or disregarding such an expert determination). In view of the wording of the clause, the new ground is not likely to have any significant impact given that arbitral tribunals are required to provide a reasoned award in which the grounds for following or disregarding any
expert opinion are supposed to be explained anyway. The maximum duration of a stay of the setting aside proceedings, while the tribunal can resume the case remitted to it to eliminate any grounds for setting aside, is 90 days. The enforcement of domestic awards may be refused on two ex officio grounds: the non-arbi- trability of the subject matter and the violation of public policy. An additional remedy is also provided for in the law: the retrial of the arbitra- tion, which may be requested from the arbitral tribunal within one year of service of the award in the case of the discovery of facts or evidence that the party requesting the retrial could not invoke during the arbitration through no fault on its own and that could have resulted in decision more favourable for said party. Parties can – and indeed do in most cases – exclude this new type of recourse by means of a derogation clause in their arbitration agreement. The regulation of the institutional framework of arbitration in the Arbitration Act The Arbitration Act regulates not only the arbitral procedure, recourse and enforcement, but also institutional arbitration in Hungary. In accord- ance with the Act, there are only four arbitral institutions in Hungary: all commercial disputes (meant in a broad sense, covering basically all disputes) are settled in proceedings adminis- tered by the Arbitration Court Attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the “Commercial Arbitration Court”), Hungary’s premier permanent arbitral institution. In addi- tion, separate designated institutions administer cases in sports, agriculture and food, and con- cession matters. The Act also includes specific provisions on the structure of the Commercial
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