GVH: About You pays more than one billion forints in fines and customer compensation in Hungary

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 11. 19. 11:03

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The operator of the online fashion portal About You will pay more than 500 million forints in compensation to hundreds of thousands of Hungarian customers, and will also have to pay an additional 505 million forints in fines to the central budget as a result of the procedure of the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH), the authority told MTI on Wednesday.

The statement highlighted that About You had acted in a deceptive manner and exerted psychological pressure on consumers, the operator of the portal acknowledged the violations and undertook to provide 1,750 forints in compensation to hundreds of thousands of consumers who, between December 31, 2022 and They made purchases on the website or in the application between December 31, 2024. In addition to the refund estimated at a total of more than 500 million forints, the German company will pay a fine of 505 million forints to the Hungarian budget.

It was recalled that in July 2023, the Hungarian Competition Authority launched three competition supervision proceedings against major players in the domestic online clothing and footwear trade. According to the GVH’s suspicions, CCC, Answear and About You displayed discount prices in a misleading way for customers. The investigation of CCC and Answear concluded with the acceptance of a commitment by both operating companies to improve their price display practices and to act more transparently in the future.

According to the information, during the investigation of About You’s price and discount display practices, the national competition authority revealed that the German operating company, headquartered in Hamburg, engaged in misleading commercial practices in several respects.

It developed and operated a price and discount display system that did not ensure that consumers could receive real information about the available price discounts and their extent. It exerted psychological pressure on consumers by informing them about the duration of the campaigns with a clock that continuously counted down every second, highlighting the passage of time, and by displaying messages highlighting the limited availability of products throughout the entire purchase process.

– explained.

It was added that these techniques were capable of significantly restricting consumers’ freedom of choice and behavior in relation to products, as well as their ability to make an informed decision.

It was announced that the company operating the About You portal initially defended itself, and then admitted during the proceedings violations and cooperated with the GVH. In order to reduce the fine, the company undertook to develop a comprehensive consumer protection compliance program, as part of which it also made commitments to specifically transform the urgent messages. The company also undertook to pay 1,750 forints in compensation to all Hungarian consumers who made purchases on the website or in the application between December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2024.

The operator will directly refund the compensation amount to those whose bank details the operator has, and will credit the others in the form of About You coins. Consumers will be entitled to redeem this for one year, and in the event of a purchase, the compensation will be automatically credited, no special activity is required on the part of the consumer

– the authority informed.

The GVH monitors the price display and promotional practices of webshops in the period before Christmas, and if it detects suspicion of violations, it will take the necessary measures, and if justified, it will launch an investigation – the statement said.