Procurement Legal Remedies & Dispute Resolution in Hungary

What content elements are mandatory in a remedy application?

Section 149 of the Kbt. lists the mandatory content elements of a remedy application. Beyond procedural and identifying data (applicant, contracting authority, subject of the procurement), five elements carry the highest rejection risk:

• Itemised identification of the specific infringement and the infringed Kbt. section.
• Proof of direct interest impairment (standing).
• The petition: what the applicant asks the Döntőbizottság to decide on the merits.
• An interim measure request (optional but commercially critical).
• Electronic filing with mandatory representation (licensed procurement advisor, chamber-registered legal counsel, or attorney).

On first reading a Döntőbizottság panel looks for three things: the itemised identification of the infringed legal provision, the directness of the interest impairment, and the filing date relative to the date of becoming aware.

Within what deadlines can a remedy application be submitted?

Remedy deadlines depend on the type of contested act and are peremptory: missing them leads to rejection without substantive review (Kbt. 148. § (10)). The main categories are:

• General rule: 15 days from becoming aware of the infringement (Kbt. 148. § (3)).
• Challenging the decision closing the procedure: 10 days from becoming aware of it, or 5 days in a procedure under Kbt. 115. § (Kbt. 148. § (3)-(4)).
• Challenging the notice or the procurement documents: up to the fifth day before expiry of the tender or participation deadline. Where the 15 or 10 day period above expires later, the application may still be filed until then (Kbt. 148. § (5)).
• Procurement carried out without a procedure: 30 days from becoming aware of it, and at the latest within one year of the contract being concluded or of performance beginning (Kbt. 148. § (9)).

There is no general objective deadline. The former ninety-day limit running from the infringement was repealed by Act XVI of 2023 with effect from 1 September 2023, to comply with the EU remedies directive and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. An objective limit survives only where the procurement was carried out without a procedure, in the one-year form above. Summaries written before autumn 2023 often still state the ninety-day rule.

The 15-day subjective deadline must be supported by objective facts in the application. Evidence can include the date of the bid-opening minutes, the contracting authority's notice, or the timestamp of an EKR message. During the judicial recess the deadline does not pause, but the Döntőbizottság does not carry out substantive proceedings, so the application must be filed on the merits by the last working day before the recess.

The specific date can be checked with our deadline calculator, which applies the counting rules in Section 48 of the Kbt. against the current working-day calendar.

Why is it worth filing a dispute resolution request before a remedy procedure?

After an unsuccessful pre-litigation dispute resolution attempt, the administrative service fee of the subsequent remedy application is reduced by 20%. This is a material amount at the estimated-value-based tiered fees, and the disputed questions can be clarified without a procedure before the Döntőbizottság.

Preparing a dispute resolution request means completing three steps in order:

1. Itemised documentation of the contested circumstances.
2. Precise reference to the relevant legal framework.
3. Assessment of whether dispute resolution can remedy the infringement without initiating a formal remedy procedure.

If the assessment shows these are satisfied, dispute resolution can close the case. If not, the recorded material can be carried directly into the remedy application, at the reduced fee.

Why is an application rejected without a substantive review?

The Döntőbizottság can reject an application without a substantive review if any of the mandatory content elements under Section 149 of the Kbt. is missing, or if the formal rules of filing are breached. Five defect types account for the overwhelming majority of rejections, in decreasing order of frequency:

1. Lateness: miscalculated deadline or an unsupported awareness date.
2. Paraphrased legal provision: the infringed Kbt. section is not identified item by item (Kúria case decision 219).
3. Missing standing: only indirect interest impairment, or no realistic winning chance.
4. Unpaid administrative service fee by the time of filing.
5. Missing representation: filed without the mandatory procurement advisor, chamber-registered legal counsel, or attorney.

Each is a stand-alone ground for rejection. A significant share of defects arises from last-minute haste. It is better to file a complete application after legal and professional review, than to rely on later amendment.

What does the consultant deliver during a remedy procedure?

In a remedy procedure the consultant carries out four concrete tasks beyond document preparation:

• Assessment of procedural risks based on the contested act and the available evidence.
• Systematisation of legal arguments, with itemised matching to the infringed legal provisions.
• Definition of the optimal course of action, choosing between dispute resolution and a remedy procedure.
• Pre-submission review of formal and substantive compliance.

Our service is available to both contracting authorities and tenderers.