Replacing online cash registers in Hungary

One of the cash register distribution companies has announced a promotion to replace an online cash register with a revoked license whereas that solution can be used until June 20, 2022, at the latest. What is behind this is it turned out that a total of 86 cash register types had their licenses revoked because of the legal changes that happened in 2016. These devices with revoked licenses can be used until the summer and autumn of this year at the latest, after which they must be replaced. The burden of this is on cash register owners, practically traders and service providers. The replacement is needed because a few years after the introduction of online cash registers, there was a change in legislation in 2016 that caused a software update burdening the manufacturers of the cash registers but was not done by all of the manufacturers. In 2016, due to the changed technical requirements, the distributors of cash registers had to make the necessary changes to the cash registers they sold by updating the AEE software as stated by the Government Office of the Capital City of Budapest (short: BFKH). 

As it turned out, the application for the license to distribute the cash register and the application for the amendment of the license had to be submitted to the BFKH by 30 April 2017, together with the necessary documentation and the “type-tested” cash register.

If neither the distributor nor the AEE manufacturer initiated the proceedings or the government officials rejected the application to amend the marketing authorization, the BFKH revoked the marketing authorization for the non-compliant cash registers. Cash registers with revoked distribution licenses could be still operated for another 5 years according to the law, which means that during 2022 that 5 year period expires. 

The list of revoked Cash registers and the 5-year expiration dates can be found on the Hungarian government website: Nyilvántartások - BFKH (gov.hu), under the section titled: Cash Register Distribution Authorization (in Hungarian: „Pénztárgép forgalmazási engedélyezés”). Under this specific section, a hyperlink leading to the official List of cash register distribution licenses is present. If a particular retailer is not certain if the cash register he is using was updated according to the mentioned requirements and cannot be sure of that using the mentioned list either, it is advised to check with the manufacturer of the cash register.