Information on the Hearing Procedure

The President of the Budapest Conciliation Board – within 60 days of receipt of the complete request – sets a date for the hearing procedure for the parties. The Board sends a notification on the date of the hearing to the consumer and the business.

From 1 January 2024, as a rule, the member of the Budapest Conciliation Board acts alone at hearings intended to promote a peaceful outcome to a legal dispute between the consumer and the business in case of online hearings. Online hearings take place via Teams video conference, the link necessary for joining is sent to the parties by the Budapest Conciliation Board in advance.

At the request of the consumer the Conciliation Board holds a personal hearing. For this the representative of the business who is authorized for reaching an agreement has to participate at least via online – thus it may happen that there is a so-called “hybrid” hearing where you and the conciliator meet personally while the representative of the business is present online.

The purpose of the hearing is to reach an agreement between the parties, and the hearings may have the following outcomes:

  • Agreement: the two parties find a common denominator,
  • Obligation: in cases where the request is well-grounded and the business value is under 200 000 HUF or in cases where the business declares that it recognizes the decision of the conciliation board as binding (it has made a declaration of submission).
  • Recommendation: in well-grounded cases, consumer requests where the business value exceeds 200 000 HUF, moreover the business at the beginning of the procedure has declared that it doesn’t recognize the decision of the conciliation board as binding or it hasn’t made a statement on the recognition of the decision of the Board at all.
  • Rejection: when the consumer request is groundless.
  • Termination: in several cases the procedure may end with termination, when for example a payment order is issued in the case, or the consumer withdraws his request or when the parties agree on termination of the case. The procedure is also terminated when it is impossible to continue it, for instance because of delivery failure to the company.

The summoned parties are kindly requested to bring their personal identification documents to the hearing by all means. If they act through a proxy and no authorization document has been attached in advance they are requested to provide one to the acting board.

A copy of the rescription of the business – in which it reacts to the contents of the consumer’s request, or it presents its own position – is sent to the requester by the President without delay, or if there is not enough time for this, it is given to the requester at the personal hearing.

The Conciliation Board publishes the name and the registered office of the business with its activity involved in the procedure that has not made a statement on the merit of the case and has not appeared at the scheduled hearing thus preventing the settlement of the case.

If either party – in spite of proper notification – does not appear at the hearing, or they do not present their evidence, the Board conducts the procedure and decides based on the data available.

As a closure of the hearing the acting Board verbally explains the decision made with a brief justification, the detailed and written copy of which is sent to the parties by postal delivery or via Client Gate by the Budapest Conciliation Board within 30 days.

After that both the customer and the business have 15 days to report back to the Budapest Conciliation Board whether the agreement recorded in the decision has been reached (for example the payment has been made).

The members of the Budapest Conciliation Board (BCB) – operated by the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) received 4654 cases in total in 2023 – decisions were made in a total of 4531 cases – this is a 10% increase in the number of cases compared to the previous year. At a national level, about half of the consumer complaints received by Hungarian conciliation boards have been dealt with by the Budapest Conciliation Board, in more than 1 billion HUF business value. More than 75% of the substantive cases ended with the mutual satisfaction of both parties.

Information for foreigners living in Hungary: https://bekeltet.bkik.hu/en/gyakori-kerdesek-valaszok