In a previous blog post, I explored the notion of the average consumer as defined in European Union law and its interpretation by the European Court of Justice. This current article aims to serve as a continuation of the previous study, with the objective of presenting a brief analysis of two potential interpretations of consumer vulnerability developed in the literature of consumer protection, followed by an examination of the appearance of a singular major exception to the average consumer concept within the European Union consumer protection regime: the narrow scope of consumers acknowledged as ‘particularly vulnerable’. Read more… (Daniel Szilágyi)
On 16 March 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian tax on advertisements do not infringe EU law on State aid. Both judgments dismiss the Commission’s appeals against the rulings of the General Court. Read more… (Krisztina Széles)
On 4 March 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the tax regime that four Spanish football clubs have benefited from is considered illegal State Aid. Read more… (Krisztina Széles)
Nowadays, criminal law inspired by the European Union has evolved into a significantly developing discipline and the legislations of the Member States must comply with European requirements. The importance that all legal professionals have proper knowledge in this special area of interaction between criminal law and EU law cannot be stressed enough in the ambit of the current situation, especially in light of the fact that the EU is proceeding towards the realisation of the single area of justice. In the following, we aim to summarise the milestones in the development of European criminal law in two parts. Read more… (Petra Ágnes Kanyuk)
Discussions on the possibility to attribute liability to legal persons for committing offences are far from new. The Romans already had a clear position on this and were opposed to the idea that a persona could be anything else than a natural person. Thus, Ulpian specifies that a municipium cannot be responsible for dolus since it is a legal person, i.e. a fictive entity (Catargiu, 2013, 26.). Even though this default position evolved and despite the consequent lenience towards accepting forms of liability (including criminal liability) of legal persons, the classical idea that legal persons could not be criminally punished…
Are the Hungarian tertiary education institutions autonomous, independent entities or are they controlled entirely by the state? This hypothetical question has been asked continuously ever since the democratic transition of Hungary because each government tried to change something about the legal status of Hungarian tertiary education. This year, the government decided on the transformation of the mode of operation of seven Hungarian higher education institutions, which many see as a further reduction in autonomy. In my publication, I deal with this issue and after it is presented briefly, I will bring pro and contra arguments both for and against the transformation…
In its judgment in Case C-66/18 Commission v Hungary, delivered on 6 October 2020, the European Court of Justice condemned Hungary for failing to fulfil its obligations under EU law by adopting Law XXV of 2017 amending the Law on national higher education (commonly referred to as “lex CEU”). Read more… (Daniel Szilágyi)
Many things have changed in the global economy over the last 40 years. The trade of goods used to be carried out through relatively controllable and predictable routes, so the market surveillance measures, institutions and powers that could form the foundations of an efficient system are now not necessarily capable of providing the same high level of consumer safety. Rules created in the context of identifiable manufacturers, distributors established in the internal market, physical shops and markets are no longer suitable for facing the market surveillance challenges of the online market. Read more… (Zsolt Hajnal)