The Hungarian Competition Authority draws attention to fraud related to holiday entitlements

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 03. 20. 10:49

In recent decades, fraud related to the secondary sale of holiday rights has been investigated in numerous proceedings, but despite continuous official action, these scams continue to pose a serious threat, especially to older and financially disadvantaged consumers – the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) drew attention in a statement on Thursday.

The competition authority recalled that the holiday rights market in Hungary was in its golden age 20-30 years ago. The owners, who are sometimes heirs, are not always able or willing to use their holiday rights, but they still have to pay the associated costs until the contracts expire.

Maintaining holiday rights is increasingly an additional cost for consumers with holiday rights, who therefore want to sell them, but this is fraught with serious difficulties for several reasons

– the GVH pointed out.

Holiday rights are for a fixed period of time, and termination is only possible by mutual agreement, under the conditions set by the holiday rights provider. Since there are few people who are willing to commit themselves to the same location or to predetermined dates for several decades, there is little demand for holiday rights today, so selling them is almost impossible.

Taking advantage of this, certain companies offer quick sales opportunities and solutions to Hungarian families, mostly elderly people, who want to get rid of their unnecessary holiday rights, which they already know are not functional – the competition authority highlighted.

The GVH warns, among other things, holiday rights holders to request prior written information on all details of the offer, to ask about all costs included in the offer, and not to sign any document if they cannot interpret it, and to consult with their family members and legal representatives.

The competition authority also drew attention to the following: if the sale of holiday rights involves entry into a credit system or other complex construction, those concerned should definitely familiarize themselves with its operation and costs, and before the actual sale of the holiday rights, when signing the contract, they should never pay the company offering assistance under any legal title.