Gábor is a partner of DLA Piper Budapest. He is the head of the anti-trust, competition and trade practice group. His areas of practice include European and Hungarian competition law, antitrust, unfair competition and IP related litigation as well as domestic arbitration. He has particular expertise in handling domestic cartel cases, both in front of antitrust authorities and courts. His sector experience includes consumer products and retail, construction and energy. Gábor graduated from the Eötvös Loránd University School of Law, Budapest and from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He lectures in Hungarian contract and tort law at the Eötvös Loránd University School of Law, Budapest and various EU law-related subjects (EC competition law, merger control, conflicts of laws) at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, School of Law, Budapest. Gábor is the “National Correspondent Editor” of Bellamy & Child (the leading EU competition law treatise) and a member of the Editorial Board of the Oxford Journal of European Competition Law & Practice as well as that of Európai Bírósági Ítéletek (the first Hungarian language digest of European courts’ case law). Gábor regularly publishes on EU and Hungarian competition law and questions of Hungarian contract law. Gábor is a member of the Board of the Competition Law Institute of Pázmány Péter Catholic University and the author of the competition chapter in the first full Hungarian language commentary to the EC Treaty. He speaks Hungarian, English, German and Spanish.
232
1) Introduction A wide-ranging amendment of the Hungarian Competition Act (HCA) was passed by the Hungarian Parliament on 18 November 2013 (HCA Amedment). The amendment entails the largest overhaul of the Hungarian competition law rules since 2009 and concerns the following major areas: • the (...)
76
1) Introduction A wide-ranging amendment of the Hungarian Competition Act (HCA) was passed by the Hungarian Parliament on 18 November 2013 (HCA Amendment). The amendment entails the largest overhaul of the Hungarian competition law rules since 2009 and concerns the following major areas: the (...)
179
1. Introduction On 10 April 2013, the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) terminated its competition proceedings concerning anti-competitive agreements against several multinational grocery retail chains as ALDI, Auchan, Lidl, Spar, TESCO and a domestic franchise, CBA as well as the Hungarian (...)
765
In a landmark decision published in December 2010, the Court of Appeal of Budapest had the opportunity to rule on the important question of the validity of agreements concluded by members of a horizontal cartel with their customers (so-called “fruit contracts” or “Folgeverträge”) under Hungarian (...)
1260
In December 2009, the Hungarian Parliament adopted Act CLXIII of 2009 on the protection of fair procedures (“Fair Procedures Act”) which aims to enforce the right to fair trial in the field of public finance, public procurement and competition procedures. The Fair Procedures Act enters into force (...)
1214
In December 2009 the Supreme Court published a significant individual decision (under No. BH 2009.364), in which it confirmed that communication between client and attorney, even if occurred before the initiation of the respective competition proceedings by the HCO, may still be subject to (...)
948
Description of the impugned case The distribution agreements by Mitac as well as LCP (as producers and importers) concerning various GPS devices (PNAs, PDAs with GPS function, etc.) did not contain straightforward RPM clauses, nevertheless, direct contacts between the parties (in particular, (...)
2173
Description of the impugned case The case concerned a straightforward RPM arrangement (minimum prices). Analysing the wording and the context of the relevant clause, the HCO found that it indeed contained an RPM arrangement and did not accept Castrol Hungária’s defence that the minimum prices (...)
3017
Description of the impugned case The case concerned a straightforward RPM arrangement, where the pharmacies, in their agreements concluded with a wholesaler of medicines (Hungaropharma), agreed to maintain (discounted) resale prices. Due to the wording and context of the arrangement, the HCO (...)
3040
The Budapest Court of Appeal upheld, in its second instance judgment, the verdict of the Metropolitan Court of Budapest in the "GIS cartel" case: the judgment confirmed the existence of the infringement, whilst it accepted the lower court’s decision to decrease the fines imposed on the (...)
909
Description of the impugned case The non-alcoholic beverage distribution agreements in question contained straightforward RPM clauses. Nevertheless, the HCO took into account that these agreements represented only a small portion of the supplier’s distribution portfolio and of the relevant (...)
952
Description of the impugned case A number of distribution agreements by Navi-Gate for the sale of navigation devices and PDA software contained straightforward RPM clauses. Albeit certain agreements contained the express term « recommended » prices, the HCO found that the language of the (...)
4417
Chellomedia CEE Holdco B.V. (Chellomedia), a member of the group of undertakings under the control of Liberty Global Inc. (Liberty Group), requested the Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) to approve its acquisition of control over Filmmúzeum (the Proposed Transaction). The Proposed Transaction (...)
7165
The Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) initiated proceedings against the founding companies of Euronics to verify (i) whether Euronics can be regarded as a full-function joint venture, whose establishment should have been notified to the HCO, and (ii) whether the cooperation agreement concluded (...)
9409
The Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) initiated proceedings against the Association of Hungarian Pharmacists (AHP) in order to verify whether certain rules of the AHP regulating advertising and marketing by pharmacists infringe Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 11 of the Hungarian (...)
6726
Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corporation (together with its subsidiaries, HTCC) completed its acquisition of Invitel Távközlési Szolgáltató Zrt. (Transaction) on 27 April 2007 pursuant to the terms of a Sale and Purchase Agreement, dated as of 8 January 2007, between HTCC and Invitel Holdings N.V. (...)
10004
On 21 December 2006 the HCO delivered its decision in the first large-scale cartel case in the Hungarian car insurance sector (Decision n° Vj-51/2005). In its proceedings the HCO investigated the two largest insurance companies’ vertical relationships with car dealers (who also act as car repair (...)
3588
Accor-Pannonia Hotels Zrt. (a Hungarian subsidiary of the group controlled by the French company Accor SA) requested the Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) to approve its acquisition of control over two hotels in Budapest (Hotel Taverna and Hotel Liget) (the Transaction). The Transaction was (...)
7502
The HCO initiated proceedings against the Hungarian Association of Egg Producers (HAEP) and some of its members in 2005 in order to verify whether the HAEP and its members breached the cartel prohibition contained in Article 11 of the Hungarian Competition Act (HCA) and Article 81 of the EC (...)
5663
MédiaLog was founded by various large Hungarian publishing companies such as Ringier Kiadó Kft. (“Ringier”), Népszabadság Kiadó és Nyomdaipari Zrt. (“Népszabadság”), Sanoma Budapest Kiadói Zrt. (“Sanoma”) and a major German logistics company F-LOGAG (“F-LOG”). According to the joint venture agreement 51% of (...)
4343
Proceedings, applicable law An abuse of dominant position is prohibited by both Article 82 of the EC Treaty as well as Article 21 of the Hungarian Competition Act (the latter provision contains materially identical rules to its EC counterpart). The HCO stated that in the present case both the (...)
9511
The Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) initiated proceedings against the Hungarian Bar Association (HBA) in order to verify whether certain rules of the HBA regulating advertising by attorneys as well as the content of webpages of attorneys infringe Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 11 of (...)
999
Description of the impugned case The association of Hungarian publishers and bookstores adopted a rule making the resale price prescribed by the publisher mandatory. In fact, as a result of the operation of such rule, publishers were granted the right to determine the retail prices of the (...)
867
Description of the impugned case The distribution agreements in question by the producer (Kemira) did not contain RPM clauses; on the contrary, they provided that the distributor’s pricing policy is not restricted. Nevertheless, the producer sent several mails, calls and warnings to the (...)
3300
Under the applicable provisions of Hungarian law it is (i) the parties to the administrative procedure (in this case the parties in the proceedings initiated by the HCO) or (ii) those whose rights or legal interests are directly affected by the case who are entitled to request the judicial (...)
755
Description of the impugned case The lease agreements of Bobájka (a producer of bakery products) contained straightforward RPM clauses and also exclusivity clauses (the tenants/retailers were obliged to sell exclusively the products of Bobájka within the territory of the leased property and only (...)
828
Description of the impugned case The agreements by MB-Autó (the importer of Mercedes-Benz type motor vehicles in Hungary) with its dealers / distributors contained a clause whereby the delaers / distributors were obliged to request the written approval of MB-Autó to discounts provided to their (...)
1443
Description of the impugned case The supplier (Westel Mobil, a mobile telecommunications service provider), concluded agreements on the marketing and sale of mobile telecommunications services and discounted cell phones with different dealers; the agreements contained RPM clauses. The HCO (...)
975
Description of the impugned case The agreements at stake were part of a franchising network by MOL (the largest oil and gas company in Hungary) relating to operators of petrol stations and contained straightforward RPM clauses. The agreements also contained exclusive purchasing obligations. (...)
925
Description of the impugned case The undertakings under investigation (five Hungarian undertakings, the business activity of which is carrying out the examination of originality of automotives) agreed in fixing their prices towards their sub-contractors and at the same time required such (...)
974
Description of the impugned case Nine meat processing companies and two retailers (METRO and SPAR) concluded agreements, which concerned the supply of raw smoked pork products. The undertakings under investigation agreed in the quantity to be offered to the two retailers and also determined (...)
842
Description of the impugned case Certain agreements by Euro-Elzett (a producer and distributor of locks) with its distributors contained clauses, which prohibited the distributors from applying resale prices at or lower the procurement price of the locks. Euro-Elzett also sent circulars to its (...)
789
Description of the impugned case Opel Southeast Europe Kft. (the exclusive importer and wholesaler of Opel branded vehicles in Hungary) concluded vehicle distribution agreements with its partners. According to the agreement, Opel had the right to recommend the resale price of the vehicles sold (...)
954
Description of the impugned case Budapesti Sört Értékesítő Kft., a Hungarian wholesaler of beer, concluded various distribution agreements with its partners for the business year of 1996 containing a minimal resale price clause. The undertaking concerned argued that the minimal resale price had no (...)
805
Description of the impugned case Magyar Suzuki, the Hungarian producer of Suzuki branded motor vehicles concluded distribution agreements with 110 dealers. An overall condition for the conclusion of the distribution agreement was, among others, that the distributors / dealers undertook to (...)
1005
Description of the impugned case Kontavill, a Hungarian undertaking active in the market of electric instruments requested an individual exemption from the HCO for a clause contained in its agreements with wholesale distributors, which did not set the final resale price, but rather merely the (...)
807
Description of the impugned case The beer distribution agreements by one of the largest beer producers in Hungary with its wholesalers contained a clause whereby the wholesalers were under the obligation to follow the retail price list set by the producer and undertook not to deviate from such (...)
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