Request by Hungarian Autobahn Inkasso GmbH Is Not Sufficient to Enforce Parking Fees

Following a precedent-setting case handled by our law firm, the reminders sent by Hungarian Autobahn Inkasso GmbH did not constitute valid notices of demand within the meaning of Hungarian law. As a result, a claim for parking fees cannot be enforced against a foreign vehicle owner. By its judgment of 21 November 2019, the Buda Central District Court dismissed the claimant’s claim for parking fees and surcharges. Between April and July 2018, the defendant’s vehicle was parked without a parking ticket on a total of nine occasions in a paid parking zone in Budapest’s 1st District, where the hourly parking fee was HUF 440. The defendant complied neither with the payment requests nor with the claimant’s payment order. Proceedings were then brought in Hungary. The court examined whether the claimant had properly complied with the 60-day deadline vis-à-vis the defendant. To prove this, the claimant submitted, for each parking event, copies of the envelopes containing the payment demands and a dispatch table. On the basis of the documents submitted, however, the court found that the evidence was not sufficiently reliable and could not be taken into account as evidence in court, since it amounted to nothing more than a party submission. On the basis of the documents submitted, the existence of a valid 60-day notice period could therefore not be established. The action was consequently dismissed as unfounded.