The GVH imposed fines of more than 3.7 billion forints on 29 companies in 2025

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 12. 30. 13:51

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While the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) granted more than 3.3 billion forints in fine reductions to companies that cooperated and sought to comply with the law in 2025, the office’s competition council imposed a fine of 3 billion 782.6 million forints on 29 companies – the GVH told MTI on Tuesday.

The GVH has placed great emphasis on uncovering unfair commercial practices in order to protect consumers. Almost half of the closed cases were due to unfair commercial practices, resulting in 25 percent of the imposed competition supervision fines, or 944.2 million forints. The office closed several large cartel cases this year as well, they wrote, citing as an example the garbage truck cartel case, in which the GVH imposed fines of more than 1.5 billion forints on six companies.

They also drew attention to the fact that the Hungarian Competition Authority strives to cooperate with all companies subject to proceedings in order to preserve jobs. Companies can choose multiple forms of cooperation, thereby increasing the amount of fine reduction available. In cases that ended with a violation and fines in 2025, the Competition Council of the GVH granted a fine reduction of more than 3.3 billion forints.

In a statement from the office, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH, encouraged the companies subject to the procedure to actively cooperate with the competition authority. This can speed up the procedures, and by taking advantage of the forms of cooperation, companies can also achieve a significant reduction in fines. With this strategy, the GVH protects jobs and supports economic processes

– they announced.

The GVH particularly welcomes companies offering direct compensation and monetary refunds to their customers who have suffered violations. In cases closed in 2025, companies have agreed to pay approximately 800 million forints in consumer compensation and direct refunds thanks to the GVH – the president of the office added.

The GVH has also placed great emphasis this year on investigating global technology companies and online platforms. In August, new proceedings were launched against the world’s largest online accommodation booking platforms, Booking.com and Airbnb. This year, the office placed one of the most significant global online marketplaces, Wish, under follow-up investigation, and About You is paying over 1 billion forints to Hungarians thanks to the GVH’s proceedings. The competition authority proceedings concerning Temu are also expected to be concluded in 2026, they announced.

The GVH considered the effects of the rapid spread of artificial intelligence-based technologies on market competition and consumers as a high priority, and in December 2025 it joined the Hungarian Artificial Intelligence Council as a founder, as well as the Family Roundtable established by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation – the text states.

Csaba Balázs Rigó noted that the active protection of families and children is of paramount importance to the Economic Competition Authority, especially in the digital space, where manipulative and deceptive practices often specifically targeting children are extremely common.

This year, the national competition authority handled more consumer signals and complaints than ever before, almost 2,000. These partly affected online trade and retail trade. This was one of the reasons why the GVH took decisive action in the field of food retail trade this year as well. Investigations were launched in the sector, for example, in the case of Spar and Auchan, and Aldi and Tesco. In addition to all this, it is important that the GVH operated the online Price Monitoring system this year as well, and in December 2025 it announced that it would investigate the pricing practices of importers in cooperation with the Hungarian National Bank – the announcement reads.

The national competition authority also “focused” on air transport in 2025, especially on discount airlines. WizzAir paid refunds to several thousand Hungarian passengers, but new proceedings were also launched at WizzAir and Ryanair during the year.