Significant Changes Regarding Merger Control, Antitrust Damages And Resale Price Maintenance

A recent amendment of the Competition Act, adopted by the Hungarian Parliament on 6 December 2016, will bring about significant changes to, inter alia, the authorization of concentrations, private enforcement of competition law and assessment of resale price maintenance. Most of the changes will enter into force on 15 January 2017.

Merger control

One of the most important changes with respect to merger control is the amendment of the turnover thresholds:

• On the basis of the previous turnover thresholds, those concentrations were subject to notification, where the combined turnover of the undertakings exceeds HUF 15 billion and there are at least two undertakings involved that have a turnover exceeding HUF 500 million. After the amendment, the HUF 15 billion threshold remains unchanged, but the other threshold will be increased to HUF 1 billion.