A New Era Of Collective Claims

On 1 January 2018, a new Act on civil court procedures will come into force, bringing a 50-year-long era to an end. The new law reforms existing shortcomings, such as lengthy and tedious procedures, and introduces mechanisms already widespread in Western and common-law jurisdictions, such as collective redress.

Hungarian law already provided for a "collective redress in the public interest" in certain sectoral legislation, although this right was granted only to certain state actors (the prosecutor or other administrative bodies, eg the Hungarian Competition Authority) to enforce collective interest claims. The new Act reregulates "collective redress in the public interest" by introducing the procedural rules applicable to collective claims initiated in accordance with the substantive provisions of the particular sectoral legislation. Thus, the new Act will now also provide for the respective procedural framework.