Trust services

hu

The changes in the legislation on electronic signatures, which came into force on 1 July 2016, have also brought about substantial changes in the register of electronic signature service providers and services.

The register of new providers and services that now qualify as “trust services”, and their registrations after 1 July, are available in the register of trust services.

The register of former electronic signature services is available here, with the content closed on 30 June 2016, in order to make the register information of former electronic signature service providers available for audits and to allow for the retrieval of data of former service providers registered until 30 June 2016 during the transition period.

Under the national transition provided for in the relevant legislation, service providers providing electronic signature services who, on 30 June 2016, were listed as qualified service providers in the register of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority for certain of their electronic signature services, excluding qualified certificates issued to natural persons (the service provided by them hereinafter jointly referred to as “Qualified service under the Eat.” [Act XXXV of 2001 on Electronic Signatures]), were entitled to provide their qualified services under the Eat. until the date of their inclusion on the trusted list under Article 22 of the eIDAS Regulation, but no later than 30 June 2017.

During the transition period, qualified services under the Eat. and the certificates issued on the basis of them, electronic signatures and time stamps based on the certificate shall continue to have the legal effect in the territory of Hungary as provided by law that they had on 30 June 2016, provided that during the transition period they comply with the requirements under the provisions of the Eat. as of 30 June 2016.

Tasks of the NMHH in the field of trust services

Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (hereinafter referred to as “eIDAS Regulation”) and Act CIII of 2023 on the Digital State and Certain Rules for the Provision of Digital Services (hereinafter referred to as “Dáptv.”), the National Media and Infocommunications Authority has the following tasks in the field of trust services:

It registers providers of services related to non-qualified and qualified trust services;
After the notification and throughout the entire duration of operation of the service provider, it monitors that the service provider complies with the conditions required by the eIDAS Regulation, the Dáptv. and the legislation issued on the basis of its authority, the service provider’s own regulations and general terms and conditions;
In the case of a qualified service provider, it verifies, on a regular basis, and at least once a year, that the qualified service provider meets the technical, personal and organisational conditions required by law for the provision of the service;
It applies the sanctions provided for in the Dáptv. to service providers who do not comply with the conditions;
It receives notifications from service providers concerning the suspension or termination of services and ensures that the service provider terminating its activity fulfils its obligations under the Dáptv.;
It ensures the publication of the trusted list under the eIDAS Regulation;
It cooperates with the data protection authorities and informs them without undue delay of the results of audits of qualified trust service providers where a breach of the rules on the protection of personal data is detected;
It keeps a register of the notified trust service providers and the trust services they provide, and as part of this, of the receiving trust service providers under the Dáptv. who ensure the continued availability of the publicly accessible registers related to the trust service to be terminated following the termination of the trust service activity, and of the qualified archiving services used by the trust service providers to fulfil their duty of preservation;
It keeps a register of the designated organisations certifying the conformity of qualified electronic signature and qualified electronic seal creation devices, and annually verifies compliance with the conditions for designation;
It keeps a register of qualified electronic signature and qualified electronic seal creation devices certified by designated certification bodies;
It monitors the development of technological and cryptographic algorithms for trust services. It defines the secure cryptographic algorithms that trust service providers can use in their services and the requirements for their application with specific parameters;
It makes the public registers it keeps permanently available to the public also by electronic means.

Procedures relating to trust services

Administration related to trust services may be carried out:

in person at the Authority’s customer service (23–25 Ostrom utca, Budapest, 1015, Hungary);
in writing to the E-Services Surveillance Department (Pf. 75, Budapest, 1525, Hungary).

For information on official procedures concerning trust services, please contact the E-Services Surveillance Department at (+36-1) 457-7100.

The provisions of Act CL of 2016 on General Public Administrative Procedures shall apply to the procedures of the Authority, with the derogations provided for in Act CIII of 2023 on the Digital State and Certain Rules for the Provision of Digital Services. The Authority must take a decision on the merits within three months of the submission of the application in the case of registration of a qualified trust service, and within two months of the submission of the application in other procedures. Appeals against the Authority’s decisions may be lodged in accordance with the rules of the general administrative procedures and shall be addressed to the President of the Authority, but shall be lodged with the body which took the decision at first instance.

For the procedures of the Authority, the special administrative service fee set out in BM Decree No. 25/2016 (VI. 30.) and the administrative service fee set out in NMHH Decree No. 5/2011 (X. 6.) on the administrative service fees and the method of payment of fees for certain procedures of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority shall be paid.