In Budapest on Wednesday, at the opening ceremony of a conference organised by the National Anti-counterfeiting Board, Minister of State at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice Róbert Répássy said that the new Penal Code, which comes into force on 1 July, is an effective, modern and unified document, which reflects a strict, ‘proportionate’ approach to criminal justice.

The Minister of State – who is also co-chairman of the Board – said that the new Penal Code contains a chapter specifically devoted to crimes against intellectual property rights; violations involving financial loss of no more than one hundred thousand forints will in future constitute lesser offences.

Mr. Répássy also mentioned that the structure, organisation and chapter order of the new Penal Code are based on the Fundamental Law, and it emphatically expresses the importance of products protected by special rights. He added that although the Government has been attacked for being too strict, the industry rather sees the adopted legislation as moderate.

The Minister of State said that the current Penal Code from 1978 has been amended about one hundred times over the last few decades, according to the differing crime policies of various governments. These amendments have sometimes contradicted each other, rendering the Act inconsistent. This could only be remedied by creating a new code, which was what previous governments had tried to do.

When creating the new Penal Code the Government conducted a broad process of public and professional consultation; taking into account the results of this, the new code was adopted last summer, and will come into effect on 1 July this year.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)