The new beer regulation may be problematic

The recent proposal to amend the law to add a passage to the Commercial Act that would prohibit restaurants and large beer and soft drink producers from concluding exclusive contracts and thus restrict brands within the restaurant has caused a great storm in the domestic catering markets. competition between. This regulation, based on determined government statements in the press, could soon end the “one pub one beer” model, radically transforming the domestic hospitality industry. In addition to the economic and business aspects of the new regulation, the experts of CERHA HEMPEL Dezső et al. Law Firm undertook the analysis of the legal aspect.

Restaurants (so-called HoReCa units – the acronym for “hotels-restaurants-cafes”) have typically operated in Hungary since the change of regime, with one or more large beverage companies (typically breweries in the case of pubs and other places, such as soft drinks – or even coffee producers). In practice, this means that in exchange for a certain quantity sold, which the host undertakes to sell, the manufacturer equips the start-up with high-value equipment (beer tap, refrigerator, coffee machine, furniture, glasses) that the start-up would not necessarily be able to obtain. One of the historical reasons for the development of the model is that banks are reluctant to lend to bartenders, considering the return uncertain, and they also shy away from negative perceptions related to the market. Initially, only the positive effects of this model were visible, said dr. Tamás Polauf, the partner of the office – because the restaurants raised capital for the start-up and the beverage manufacturers were able to gain a market. At the same time, by the end of the 1990s, the small-scale breweries that had been thriving until then had been completely pushed out of the pubs by the large foreign-owned breweries. “Grant contracts” have also become more stringent, with initial quantitative expectations increasingly being replaced by legal transactions that stipulate full exclusivity (“one pub, one tap”).