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• More from Me on Blockchain Fraud

  My most recent article on blockchain fraud, The Inadequacy of Equitable Remedies for Blockchain Fraud, 95 Miss. L.J. 1144 (2026), was recently released by the Mississippi Law Journal. Written for the 2025 Remedies Forum hosted in Budapest, Hungary, this article follows on an earlier work I featured here on the BLPB in June, co-authored with...

• Data Minimization Under Scrutiny: Hungarian DPA Decision Signals Risk for U.S. Employers

  A recent decision by Hungary’s Data Protection Authority (NAIH) offers a deceptively modest outcome, a €5,000 fine, but sends a much stronger signal on the evolving expectations around data minimization under the GDPR and ultimately, the US State Privacy laws. The decision reflects a strict, controller-centric approach, making clear that the key question in a...

• Hungary’s 2026 Election: Assessing Péter Magyar’s Victory

  In our latest episode of Bad News, Good Lawyers, host Tom Firestone, head of our Government Investigations & White Collar Practice, speaks with David Kostelancik, a longtime U.S. State Department diplomat and former chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, about the political shakeup following Hungary’s 2026 national elections. On April 12, opposition candidate...

• European Court Invalidates Hungarian Law Shielding Minors from Transgender and Homosexual Depictions

  In European Commission v. Hungary, (CJEU, April 21, 2026), the Court of Justice of the European Union held that Hungary’s Law on the Protection of Children and other provisions of Hungarian law adopted in 2021 violate the Treaty on European Union and other EU rules. Hungary’s Law on the Protection of Children provides in part: ‘In...

• Clash between gender data vs Hungarian personal data register: Can an existing Hungarian registry system prevent the enforcement of trans rights based on the GDPR?

    Attila Szabó, PhD Head of Legal Aid Service, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union   *The author assisted the lawyer representing the person concerned as an advisor in the Hungarian case analyzed in the text.  The author also used artificial intelligence to prepare the English version of the text.   Photo credit: Jorge Franganillo, via Wikimedia...

• Limiting Commission Discretion in EU Funding Conditionality

  When the Commission sets the criteria for releasing EU funds, can it later decide not to follow them? Advocate General Ćapeta’s Opinion in Parliament v Commission observes that the Commission prematurely released funds despite Hungary not fulfilling many pre-established conditions. The Commission itself had set these criteria. This is part of a broader pattern of...

• Text Is Not Enough

  Advocate General Ćapeta’s Opinion in Case C-225/24 of 12 February 2026 clarifies that, in contexts of systemic rule-of-law deterioration, compliance cannot be measured solely by legislative text, while also explaining the constraints of discretionary power in EU fund cases. This piece focuses on the first aspect of the Opinion: rule-of-law compliance must be assessed through...

• Hungary: Amendments to the Cybersecurity Act

  Fewer organizations affected by the Hungarian NIS2 transposition Under the latest amendment to Act LXIX of 2024 (“Cybersecurity Act“), enterprises that qualify as large enterprises solely due to their partner or linked enterprises but do not, on their own, meet the thresholds for medium-sized enterprises are now excluded from the scope of the Cybersecurity Act....

• Hungary: Export Control of Dual-Use Products

  What’s new in 2026? Important amendments to Hungarian Government Decree no. 13/2011 (“Decree”) on the authorization of trade in dual-use items have entered into force. Together with Regulation (EU) 2021/821, which establishes the Union regime for controlling the export, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items, the Decree forms the foundation of the...

• Two Non-Constitutional Non-Democracies

  Later this year, parliamentary elections will be held in Hungary and Israel, two autocratizing countries, whose incumbents are close allies of Donald Trump. The prospects for democratic and constitutional recovery in both Hungary and Israel depend not only on domestic political conditions, but also on an increasingly permissive global environment in which systems of governance...

Featured documents

• Mute Testimony from Central and Eastern Europe

  But what, if anything, is the message? Some seem pretty clear, like the rightful place of the working class among the usual saints and princes on these buildings in Budapest . . .     Others seem to carry so many messages that there is a bit of visual clamor:    And others, well, are simply...

• Food safety systems governing Hungary’s meat products pass USDA audit

  A foreign audit report for Hungary has been released to the public by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The in-country inspection occurred from July 22 through Aug. 2, 2019, and earned approval for Hungary’s system. The audit’s purpose was to evaluate Hungary’s food safety systems...

• Hungary Enacts New Privacy Legislation

  By Dan Cooper and Helena Marttila On 11th of July, 2011, Hungary adopted a new data privacy law (Act CXII of 2011 on Informational Self-Determination and Freedom of Information) (the “Act”), which will enter into force on 1 January 2012. The main changes brought about by the Act are briefly...

• Hungary Offers Employers a GDPR Compliance To Do List for Processing Data in the Pandemic

  Hungary’s Data Processing Authority offers a GDPR compliance to do list for employers. Collect and process only what you need  Abide by the emergency laws  Devise a pandemic contingency plan  Adopt full transparency Read my detailed analysis on the Hungary Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság ...

• Squire Sanders Webinar Series: Employment Laws Around the Globe – Hungary

  Squire Sanders presents a series of monthly English language webinars featuring the employment laws of various key countries throughout Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas. These webinars will provide participants with an understanding of the essential characteristics of the employment laws in...

• EDPB Cautions Against Broad Suspension of Privacy Protections in Name of Pandemic Response

  The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has issued a strong statement on the suspension of certain aspects of the General Data Protection Regulation in Hungary. Per the EDPB: Restrictions adopted in the context of a state of emergency suspending or postponing the application of data subject...

• Concerns over Independence of Hungary’s DPA Prompt Infringement Proceedings

  On January 17, 2012, the European Commission initiated expedited infringement proceedings against Hungary over recent Constitutional changes which are considered incompatible with EU law. The Hungarian government has one month to comply or face enforcement proceedings in the European Court of...

• Study finds Salmonella program was cost effective in Hungary

  An analysis of a Salmonella control program has found it was cost-effective in Hungary, according to researchers. The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of the Hungarian Salmonella Control Program (HSCP) for 2007 to 2017 to assess the cost-effectiveness of it as a food safety intervention....

• Officials Tracking Outbreak of Rare Salmonella Strain in Seven EU States

  European Union health officials are investigating an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Stanley that has sickened over 400 people in seven member countries. While S. Stanley infections are rare outside of Southeast Asia and usually appear only among those who have traveled there, this outbreak is...

• Hungarian Parliament Passes Law Banning Schools From Teaching About LGBT Issues

   AP reports that on Tuesday, Hungary’s National Assembly adopted legislation (full text of law in Hungarian) that bans school sex education programs, as well as films and ads aimed at minors, from presenting information about non-heterosexual sexual orientation. It also bans presenting information...