GVH-ÖRT workshop: Focus on preliminary compliance!
The Self-Regulatory Advertising Board (ÖRT) held a workshop for its members on the experiences of the 2024 competition authority procedures in cooperation with the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH). At the opening of the online event, Ildikó Fazekas, Director of the ÖRT, highlighted the joint responsibility and cooperation of advertisers, consumers and regulators. Dr. Andrea Basa, Head of the Consumer Protection Office of the GVH, gave a presentation during the workshop, and then answered the participants’ questions in an informal discussion.
In order to familiarize advertisers with the experiences of competition authority investigations, the ÖRT and the GVH jointly organized the online event, where representatives of nearly 100 companies – advertisers, agencies and the media – participated. In 2024, the GVH conducted 22 proceedings on the subject of unfair commercial practices against consumers and the GVH Competition Council imposed a total of 1.7 billion forints in fines on the affected companies.
In her introduction, Ildikó Fazekas, Director of ÖRT, highlighted that presenting the GVH’s investigation experiences and introducing the criteria system helps to apply ethical advertising practices. Not only the amount of the fine, but also the allegations involved in the investigation and the irregularities related to their use, as well as their justification, provide very valuable lessons for professionals involved in advertising production. It is important to comply not only with general advertising rules – such as the appropriate marking of the nature of the advertisement – but also with specific industry category rules, the disregard of which can have serious consequences. In the pre-compliance toolkit, advertisers have a number of elements available to them, the application of which helps to avoid official procedures and sanctions related to a given advertisement. We are talking about elements such as preliminary reviews of advertisements, ethics trainings and joint workshops with the relevant authorities – emphasized Ildikó Fazekas, Director of ÖRT, in her opening remarks.
Based on the experiences of the past period, two key strategic focal points can be identified in the consumer protection activities of the GVH. Areas related to the digital transition, such as influencer marketing, the application of so-called dark patterns, and the use of AI in commercial practices. In addition to digital topics, the topic of green claims, which are considered the cornerstones of the green transition, is receiving greater attention. There are already closed procedures in both digital and green topics that help businesses develop ethical advertising practices. Special emphasis is also placed on follow-up investigations, during which the GVH assesses compliance with the commitments and measures required of the companies concerned. It is already an accepted official practice that instead of or in addition to fines, the affected enterprises undertake direct compensation for consumers, thus directly benefiting from the GVH’s procedures. The GVH expects a clear market-cleaning effect from investigations involving several enterprises but launched on the same topic – such as the currently ongoing influencer case or the PET bottle cases –. Such procedures, which involve several players in a given market, help to eliminate the illegal practices applied in a given area, thus having a positive impact on the behavior of all market players. The procedures launched and conducted last year were not only against large enterprises, but also against small and medium-sized enterprises, as they cannot be exempt from complying with the rules, but at the same time, the GVH – within the framework of the legislation – always strives to support enterprises that admit violations and strive to comply with the law – highlighted Dr. Andrea Basa is the head of the Consumer Protection Office of the GVH, summarizing the investigation experiences that can serve as important and current information for the advertising profession.
An investigation, a condemnation decision and a penalty always impose a serious burden on the companies concerned, however, if we can learn the results of the investigation related to the condemnation, we must use it to implement good practices in the preparation and publication of our own advertisements. At ÖRT, we continuously monitor the decisions of the GVH, process them and use them in our preliminary opinion service, and we present these cases during our trainings related to ethical advertising. We do this so that advertising maintains its credibility and trust not only in the eyes of the authorities, but also in the eyes of consumers. That is why the professional cooperation with the GVH is valuable to us, within the framework of which we receive accurate information first-hand from GVH employees – said Zsolt Gerendi, Secretary General of ÖRT.
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