The Hungarian Government has submitted a draft for public consultation on amendments to consumer protection regulations ("Draft"), partly related to the transposition of Directive 2023/2673 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The amendments will significantly impact all businesses offering products or services to consumers through distance contracts, particularly webshops and online marketplaces.
One of the most important elements of the Draft is that online retailers will be required to provide an easily accessible online withdrawal declaration option, a so-called "withdrawal function." This will allow consumers to exercise their statutory withdrawal rights directly and electronically through the web interface. The function must be made available to consumers continuously throughout the withdrawal period in a clearly visible and easily accessible form. The business must also publish the online form required to use the withdrawal function with clear, comprehensible, and unambiguous wording. After the consumer submits their withdrawal declaration, the business must send a confirmation without delay on a durable medium, such as email, recording the fact of withdrawal.
The scope of the regulation applies not only to merchants operating their own webshops but to all businesses selling products or services to consumers through online interfaces. This means online marketplace operators will also be required to integrate the withdrawal button into their platforms if distance contracts are concluded between consumers and merchants on their interface. The logic of the regulation follows that consumers must be enabled to easily exercise withdrawal where the contract was actually concluded or where the consumer completed the purchasing process. Thus, marketplaces are not exempt from technical and design-level implementation, especially when consumers purchase through the platform, regardless of whether the contract is concluded between the marketplace or a third-party merchant.
The Draft also amends the rules on mandatory warranties. The current narrowly defined consumer group will be expanded, as micro, small, and medium enterprises will also be able to enforce mandatory warranty claims in the future, provided they do not use the product in the course of their own professional or economic activity. This change significantly broadens the circle of eligible parties and materially modifies the expected burden on warranty processes.
According to the current text version, the new withdrawal function obligations will enter into force on June 19, 2026. The amendments to mandatory warranty rules will apply earlier, from January 1, 2026. The changes in the regulatory environment therefore require all affected businesses to begin preparations in a timely manner, particularly regarding technical development of web interfaces, user experience redesign, amendments to general terms and conditions, and re-regulation of customer communication and data processing procedures.
