Decisions of the Competition Council of the Hungarian Competition Authority (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal - GVH)

The Competition Council of the Hungarian Competition Authority (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal - GVH) issued the following three separate decisions on 21 December 2006.

In its decision Vj-114/2006 the Competition Council of the GVH established that Magyar Telekom Nyrt., a Hungarian undertaking owned by Deutsche Telekom, active in the telecommunications industry, infringed the provisions on the prohibition of unfair manipulation of consumer choice of the Hungarian Competition Act. It was held that certain advertisements of Magyar Telekom were unlawful because it stated that telephone conversations were free of charge, however, this was deemed not to be true as the consumer was indeed obliged to pay certain sums (monthly fee, switching fee, etc.). Furthermore, it was held to be misleading that Magyar Telekom did not inform the consumers about certain limitations of its "zero HUF fee per minute" promotion. The Competition Council of the GVH imposed a fine of HUF 30 million (approx. EUR 117.000) on Magyar Telekom Nyrt. for its unlawful behaviour.
In its decision Vj-123/2006 the Competition Council of the GVH established that Pannon GSM Távközlési Zrt., an undertaking active in the market of mobile telephone service provision, infringed the provisions on the prohibition of unfair manipulation of consumer choice of the Hungarian Competition Act. Certain advertisements of Pannon GSM were held to be misleading because they stated that "Free WAP on the week-end", but omitted to mention that this free service was possible only up to a certain amount of data. The Competition Council of the GVH imposed a fine of HUF 7 million (approx. EUR 27.000) on Pannon GSM Távközlési Zrt. for its unlawful behaviour.

Budapest, 22 December 2006

Communications Group of
the General Secretariat

Further information:
(Mr) András Mihálovits
Hungarian Competition Authority
1054 Budapest, V. ker. Alkotmány u.5.
1245 Budapest, 5. Pf. 1036
tel: +36-30 618-6618
email: Mihalovits.Andras@gvh.hu
http://www.gvh.hu