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In Hungary, an AI agent may only make marketing calls to people and businesses who agreed to automated calls beforehand. Section 162(1) of the Electronic Communications Act (Eht.) requires prior consent for automated calling systems, for consumers and companies alike. The Advertising Act (Grt.) adds that any marketing call to a natural person needs prior, express consent, whoever makes it. Hungary has no national do-not-call list to fall back on.
This page summarizes the law as of October 2026 to help you plan AI phone calls. It isn’t legal advice. Laws and how regulators apply them change, so check your use case with a lawyer before you start a campaign.

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At a glance

Only with prior consent. Eht. 162. § (1) reads:
“Az emberi beavatkozás nélküli, automatizált hívórendszer vagy előfizetői kapcsolat létrehozására szolgáló más automatizált eszköz az előfizető tekintetében a) csak akkor alkalmazható közvetlen üzletszerzés, tájékoztatás, piackutatás céljára, ha ehhez az előfizető előzetesen hozzájárult”
In English: an automated calling system without human intervention, or another automated device that connects to a subscriber, may only serve direct marketing, information, or market research if the subscriber consented beforehand. Who it protects. A subscriber is any natural or legal person with a phone contract (Eht. 188. § point 24), so there’s no B2B exception. Whether an AI agent counts. No Hungarian regulator or court has ruled on conversational AI agents yet. An AI agent that holds the whole conversation works without human intervention, which is what the wording targets. Treat AI agent calls as automated. What a human in the loop changes. A human who only listens or can take over doesn’t change the answer while the AI agent talks. Only a call that a person conducts falls under the rules below.

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Cold calls by a human

Consumers and sole traders. Under Grt. 6. § (1), you may advertise by directly contacting a natural person only “ha ahhoz a reklám címzettje előzetesen egyértelműen és kifejezetten hozzájárult” (if the recipient consented beforehand, unambiguously and expressly). Sole traders are natural persons. The consumer protection authority’s blog says people can give that consent at the start of the call (2015), and Grt. 6. § (8) bans advertising in the request itself. So a person may ask for permission first and pitch after a clear yes. Don’t use this route for AI calls, because Eht. 162. § (1) asks for consent before the automated call. Companies. Grt. 6. § (1) only covers advertising to a “természetes személynek mint reklám címzettjének” (natural person as the recipient). For direct marketing outside Grt. 6. §, Eht. 162. § (2) forbids contacting a subscriber “aki úgy nyilatkozott, hogy nem kíván ilyen kapcsolatfelvételt fogadni” (who declared they don’t want such contact). The Grt. itself wrote that wording into the Eht. in 2008, so the law pairs consent for natural persons with an opt-out for everyone else. The former national consumer protection authority (NFH) read it the same way for email. Without consent, you may only send ads to a legal person’s own contact details, and an employee’s work address isn’t one (NFH blog, 2015). Calls stay unclear, because a natural person always picks up, and Grt. 3. § j) counts anyone the ad targets or reaches as its recipient. PROVARIS reads the consent rule as covering individuals in B2B too (PROVARIS Varga & Partners, Chambers 2025). We found no ruling on calls to companies from the consumer protection authority, NAIH, the GVH, or the Kúria. In practice:
  • To pitch the company itself, a human may call its general number unless it objected or carries the ”§” directory mark. This is the most likely reading, but it’s untested.
  • To pitch a named employee, for example on a direct line or a mobile, treat them as a natural person and ask for consent first, as with sole traders. A human may ask at the start of the call, without advertising (Grt. 6. § (8)).

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Existing customers and callback requests

Existing customers. Hungary didn’t implement the soft opt-in of Article 13(2) of the ePrivacy Directive (Chambers 2025). Neither Eht. 162. § nor Grt. 6. § has an existing-customer exception. An AI agent needs consent to make marketing calls to existing customers, both B2C and B2B. A human may most likely call a corporate customer’s general number unless it objected, but no authority or court has confirmed this for calls. Pitching a named employee needs consent, the same as a cold call. Callback requests. When someone leaves their number and asks for a call, the request is prior consent for that call. Say in the form that an AI agent calls back and about what, and keep the record. Running your own ads to such a form is the cleanest way to start AI calls in Hungary.

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Do-not-call register: Directory opt-out mark

Hungary has no national do-not-call register. For AI calls and calls to consumers you need consent anyway, so the ”§” mark mainly matters for calls by a human to companies. Your own objection list matters most: Grt. 6. § (3) requires you to stop at once when someone withdraws consent. Purchased lists and partners. Under Grt. 6. § (5), a list owner may only pass consent data to a third party with the person’s prior consent. Ask the vendor for the exact consent text, the collection method, and evidence that it names you and covers automated calls. botBrains asks for this evidence before outbound campaigns, see Before you start outbound campaigns.

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Tell callers they’re talking to an AI

Since August 2, 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires that people know they’re talking to an AI system, at the latest when the conversation starts. This applies to inbound and outbound calls, to consumers and to business contacts, and you can’t count on the exception for obvious cases when your AI agent sounds human. The default introduction already says that your AI agent is an AI, so keep that statement first when you edit it. When you call a consumer to sell something, the Consumer Rights Directive also requires you to name your company, anyone you call for, and the commercial purpose at the start. Hungary adds no AI-specific disclosure rule. Act LXXV of 2025 and Decree 344/2025 only set up the AI Act authorities. Other rules require you to identify yourself:
  • 45/2014. Korm. rendelet 17. § requires your company name, the company you call for, and the sales purpose at the start of a call to a consumer.
  • Eht. 162. § (3) bans direct marketing whose sender you can’t identify, even with consent.
  • Grt. 6. § (7) requires you to tell the person where they can withdraw consent.
Recommended introduction for outbound marketing calls:
For inbound calls:
Most company names take “a” or “az” in Hungarian, so add it where your name needs it. Edit the text in your introductions. Use guidance to tell the AI agent how to handle a request like “ne hívjanak többet” (don’t call again), and a Unitool to write the objection to your CRM.

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Call recording

Because the Civil Code asks for consent, keep the star-key objection in your introduction. Pressing the star key stops the recording and discards it, while the transcript stays. botBrains stores recordings, transcripts, and call data in the EU.

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Caller ID and calling hours

Eht. 162. § (3) means people must be able to see who calls. The caller sees your botBrains phone number, and botBrains provisions Hungarian numbers on request. We found no Hungarian rule on calling hours or a special prefix for marketing calls. Point 26 of the annex to the Unfair Commercial Practices Act (Fttv.) bans repeated, unwanted pressing of consumers by phone, so limit retries. botBrains doesn’t enforce calling hours or screen lists, so plan your calls yourself. On voicemail, the AI agent hangs up without leaving a message.

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Sector rules

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Fines and enforcement

Notable cases:
  • NAIH fined Budapest Bank HUF 250 million on February 8, 2022 for AI emotion analysis of recorded customer calls without a valid legal basis or proper notice (NAIH-85-3/2022).
  • NAIH fined Magyar Éremkibocsátó HUF 30 million on September 12, 2022 because its phone and post marketing consent didn’t let people choose channels or purposes (NAIH-2501-10/2022).
  • In 2022, NAIH published a formal notice on a political party’s 1.49 million automated calls, many to numbers with the ”§” mark (NAIH-2973-1/2022).
We found no pending change to these calling rules for 2026 or 2027.

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Sources

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Next steps

Phone integration

Set up your phone line, introductions, and outbound calls.

Calling laws by country

Compare consent rules for AI calls across the EU, the UK, and the US.