A new law has been adopted in Hungary on the application of the digital services act. Act No. CIV of 2023 applies to all undertakings established in Hungary and providing intermediary services or those undertakings which provide intermediary services to Hungarian location and to online search engines. (The act refers to DSA Article 3. g) and j)) (further on: intermediary service provider).

The main substantive rules in the Act are as follows:

• If the undertakings are notified according to Arts. 9 and 16 DSA, they have to remove or make the content inaccessible without delay.
• Rules on damages are applicable in accordance with the Hungarian Civil Code, Article 54.
• Recipients of services can sue the intermediary service provider, especially under DSA Arts. 14, 14 (4), 16 (5) and 17 (1).
• Consumers can sue service providers established in other Member States before the courts of their home address, save otherwise agreed upon under Regulation 1215/2012/EU.
• Recipients of services can initiate official proceedings if the general terms of the service, or the decisions according to DSA Arts. 16 (5) and 17 (1) are not in compliance with the rules in the DSA.

The Hungarian Competition Authority is empowered – in an act recently adopted – to initiate competition supervision proceedings against gatekeepers under the DMA in relationship with Arts. 5 – 7 of the DMA. At the end of the procedure the GVH will submit the report to the European Commission.