Hungary
Status
Legislative proposal adopted
Explanatory note re status
The Hungarian Parliament has adopted the legislative proposal for the implementation of the Copyright Directive on 28 April 2021, and it was published in the Hungarian Gazette on 6 May 2021.
Implementation Act
Act 37 of 2021 on the Amendment of Act 76 of 1999 on Copyright and Act 93 of 2016 on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights aimed at Legislative Harmonisation
Implementation Date
1 June 2021
Approach to implementation
Amendments to existing law
Next steps
Unknown
Noteworthy points arising from legislative changes
The Implementation Act sticks to the wording of the Copyright Directive in most cases, and is a minimum implementation of the Directive. The Implementation Act enters into force on 1 June 2021, thus complying with the implementation deadline of 7 June 2021 indicated in Article 26(2) of the Directive. The implementation does not concern the rights acquired and the acts concluded before 1 June 2021. However, press publishers may exercise their new rights with respect to press products published after 6 June 2019, but only with respect to the uses that occurred after 1 June 2021.
Articles 3 & 4: The Text and Data Mining Exceptions
Article 35/A of the newly amended Copyright Act introduces the implementing provisions for Art. 3 and 4 of the Directive.
Article 15: The Press Publishers' Right
Articles 82/A-82/B of the newly amended Copyright Act introduce the press publishers' right with the same content as Article 15(1) of the Directive. The free use exceptions regarding press products are indicated in Article 82/C of the Copyright Act.
The term of protection (two years from the first day of the year following the first publication) is indicated in Article 84(1)g) of the Copyright Act, implementing Article 15(4) of the Directive.
Furthermore, Article 111/J of the Copyright Act introduces transitional provisions, among others, on how press publishers may exercise their rights with respect to all press products published after 6 June 2019, and how collective management organizations may amend their tariffs in accordance with the newly introduced rules on press publishers.
Article 17: Platform Liability Provisions
Article 17 of the Directive is transposed by Articles 57/A-57/H of the Copyright Act. The wording of the relevant provisions is almost identical to the wording of the Directive, and they do not contain any specific reference/details on the method of use of upload filters (however they will most probably be necessary). Regarding the "effective and expeditious complaint and redress mechanisms" of Article 17(9) of the Directive, the Copyright Act only mentions that service providers must operate a complaint procedure, must process all complaints without undue delay, which must be subject to human review.
Chapter 3 Overview
Some of the legal institutions introduced in Chapter 3 of the Directive were pre-existing in Hungarian copyright law (e.g. the bestseller right in Article 18, a mechanism similar to the contract adjustment mechanism in Article 20, right of revocation in Article 22). Therefore, the implementation of Chapter 3 mainly consists of clarifications in order to fully ensure the rights provided by the Directive.
Article 18:
The bestseller right was an already existing right in Hungarian copyright law. Articles 55 and 74(1) of the newly amended Copyright Act extends it to performers as well.
Article 19: Transparency Obligations
Article 50/A of the newly amended Copyright Act transposes the transparency/information obligations of Article 19 of the Directive.
According to Article 50/A(1), based on the licensing agreement, the licensee/user must provide quite detailed information to the author (however if the level of detail would mean a disproportionate administrative burden to the licensee, then the information must only be provided to the reasonably expected extent). The information obligation is not applicable in cases where the author has waived its right to remuneration, and is only applicable in case of films/audiovisual works if the author has previously requested it in writing.
Other Information
The text of the Implementing Act is available here (only in Hungarian).
The explanatory memorandum of the Implementing Act is available here (only in Hungarian).
The official press release of the HIPO is available here (only in Hungarian).
