Summary: You Cannot Request Bulk Access, Only Access to Specific Records
| Request sent to | Hungarian Ministry of Justice |
| Outcome of request | Information Refused. |
| Time taken to respond | 2 working days (Deadline of 15 working days) |
| Reason for refusal | Only need to answer requests for individual records. Another law overrides FOI law. |
On 22 July 2013 the request was sent by Access Info’s partners in Hungary, Tamas Bodoky and Ildi Kovács, to the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice (a copy of the request and the full correspondence with the Ministry can be found on the Hungarian request platform Atlatszo (http://kimittud.atlatszo.hu/request/ceginformacios-adatbazis).
On 24 July 2013 the request was denied. According to the justification, on the one hand, this is because certain pieces of the database are already available for free for everyone on the Register’s website: http://www.e-cegjegyzek.hu/index.html. On the other hand, according to the relevant legislation, it is not possible to ask for the entire database or a substantial part of it, because the legislation only allows for requests for specific files to be made. In its response, the Ministry argued that access to the whole database cannot be achieved by using Hungary’s Freedom of information legislation.
On 13 September 2013 we decided to try another way. We sent a formal letter to the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice in which we asked for the exact amount that they would charge for access to the full register. The original idea was to request this in order to appeal against the specific amount being charged for access to the information. However, we never received a response to that follow-up request.
Accessing the Hungarian Company Register
| Information available (for free) | You can see the company’s name, register number, where is it established, main activity, stock capital, fiscal ID, whether or not the company has gone bankrupt or been affected by a liquidation process. |
| Provision for public access | Company data in Hungary is handled by special courts, which are called company courts and which are located in the capital and every county. However, they do not provide for online access to company information. Instead, you must go there and ask for the information in person. The Ministry of Justice and Public Administration runs an online service, which provides company information for unofficial purposes for free on the website: http://www.e-cegjegyzek.hu/index.html There is a charge for official copies of documents. |
| Cost per record | Free as long as it is only used for informative instead of official purposes. |
| Cost for whole database | Cannot access full database. |
Additional Information:
Hungary´s Right to Information (RTI) Rating: (Click here)
Hungary´s Act on Informational Self-Determination and Freedom of Information (Click here)
Hungary’s company register (Click here)