GVH is acting on behalf of consumers following popular flu remedies

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 05. 21. 12:17

It is in the fundamental interest of consumers who follow popular domestic flu products to be clearly informed about the advertising nature of individual content. The Economic Competition Authority (GVH) has been warning about the importance of this for years, and has been using educational methods to draw attention to legal compliance and possible legal consequences. Based on the GVH’s recent quick analysis, domestic opinion leaders mostly indicate the advertising nature of their content incompletely or not at all. Therefore, in order to promote clean market competition for consumers following flu products, the GVH initiated competition supervision procedures against six domestic flu products, numerous advertising companies, and participating advertising agencies for alleged violations of the prohibition of unfair commercial practices.

The Economic Competition Authority is paying more and more attention to advertisements appearing on social media platforms, including the advertising activities of opinion leaders. In November 2023, the GVH conducted an online inspection (sweep) in order to review the advertising practice of Hungarian influenza products, during which it examined 28 Hungarian opinion leaders on various social platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok). During the sweep, the GVH revealed that only 20% of influencers follow the rules regarding the indication of advertising in all cases, the majority (54%) usually indicate the fact of promotional content, but not always, while about a quarter of opinion leaders never, or it only very rarely publishes any information. The GVH also found deficiencies in the method of indicating the paid nature of the examined contents.

Based on the experiences of the rapid analysis, the additional data, and due to the detected possibly illegal commercial practices, the GVH has identified six domestic influencers (Péter Dancsó – “Videomania”; Csenge Forstner, Zoltán Fördős – “Zé Fördős”, Bence Halmi, Roland Kása – “Rolix” , Antal Strenner – “Whisper Ton”) initiated competition supervision proceedings.