The competition authority imposed a fine of more than one hundred million for deceptive telemarketing

The national competition authority closed the proceedings against the distributors of Helvetia Apotheke’s dietary supplements, which investigated the telemarketing of the products. The competition authority found that the Czech distributors engaged in unlawful practices against Hungarian consumers, as they tried to persuade them to order their regular product packages (automatically delivered every 4 weeks) by withholding even the most essential information about their offer during the calls. In this way, the consumers could not even be aware of the purpose of the call in the first place – that is, if they agree to “try” the product, they are in fact entering into a contract with the company for regular package delivery. In addition, the company vaguely, ambiguously, or quite simply did not disclose its name and address, nor the cost of the regular packages, nor the conditions for their cancellation. Disclosure of some of the information withheld by the distributors would have been an express, direct legal obligation prior to the conclusion of the contract, based on private law provisions aimed at consumer protection in Hungary and the EU.