The government is against the abuse of dominance

There is a chapter in the new government’s programme called ‘Measures against the abuse of dominance and monopolies’, which states that in a market competition the better wins if there is real competition – if competition is limited it is not the better, but the stronger who wins. Shopping centres in Hungary have a sometimes intimidating dominance over their suppliers and they abuse this dominance to put pressure on their suppliers – domestic SMEs – and farmers. Long payment deadlines have become customary and shopping centres often sell the products of domestic producers below cost price. The market follows its own rules in retail too, and the government is not allowed to interfere and limit competition. However, it is rather obvious that the practice of abusing market dominance cannot be part of free trade either.

The state should be more effective in enforcing the regulations for the benefit of fair trade and the protection of domestic suppliers – just like it is done in Western Europe. We find relatively few concrete measures in the government’s programme, but it expressedly gives priority to supporting local SMEs in agriculture and processing, to protecting and backing Hungaricum products, and to making our food safety system more effective. In the past decade and a half retail radically changed in Hungary: with the appearance of large shopping centres came more products and increased competition.