Comparative law notes
According to the Hungarian Criminal Code: 1. anyone who, purporting to influence a public official, 2. requests or receives an unlawful advantage for himself or a third party, or 3. accepts a promise of such an advantage, or 4. supports the person requesting or accepting such, 5. is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment between one to five years. The penalty is imprisonment between two to eight years if the perpetrator purports to, or pretends, that he is bribing a public official or pretends to be a public official or commits the criminal offense on a commercial scale. The difference between influence peddling and lobbying: Lobbying is where an interested group tries to influence the vote of an elected official through legal means, which can include such things as overall economic good, or popular opinion. Lobbying is legal. Influence peddling is illegal, it is an action in the opposite direction, where a public official in some position of power contacts a special-interest group and offers to exchange votes or services for some kind of personal compensation.
