At the beginning of 2021 the Bulgarian Competition Protection Act (CPA) was amended, among others, with the implementation of ECN+ Directive. This brought hope that the antitrust activity of the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (CPC) may increase.

The Austrian Cartel and Competition Law Amendment Act 2021 (KaWeRÄG 2021) will introduce – in part substantial – amendments to the Austrian merger control regime as of 1 January 2022. The amendment originated in the context of the implementation of the ECN+ Directive. However, the Austrian legislator seized the opportunity to, among other things, refine the Austrian merger control regime by introducing a second domestic turnover threshold and implementing the SIEC test, as well as to strengthen the FDI screening mechanism.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on 6 August 2021 the Hungarian Government issued Decree No. 474/2021 on the different application of the Patent Act (Act XXXIII of 1995). According to the decree, patent applications filed after the entry into force of this decree will not be subject to a maintenance fee for the first three years of patent protection. The decree was promulgated on 6 August 2021 and will remain in force until the end of the state of emergency related to COVID-19.

An unregistered community design is established merely by the disclosure of a design and triggers protection for three years from the date of disclosure. This informal right was created to satisfy the demands of the industry and creatives for a design protection right providing broad-ranging territorial protection and safety for short-lived products without an elaborate and costly registration procedure.

The Hungarian Competition Authority (HCA) published its draft report of an accelerated sector inquiry on the Hungarian brick market. The interested and affected parties have only 8 days to submit comments to the authority's draft report. As a main finding, the HCA has not found reasons to conduct an antitrust proceeding on the relevant market. It has, however, made recommendations for consumers and also for the government.

Some time ago, a merger control case I was working on, involving the gambling sector (among other things), raised an interesting problem regarding the role of competition law.