Budapest, 11 February 2022 - The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has launched an investigation against the operators of ingtalan.com, as the portal presumably conceals significant information from consumers regarding advertising packages.

The Hungarian Competition Authority has initiated proceedings against Ingatlan.com Zrt, which operates one of the largest domestic real estate advertising portals, for allegedly withholding significant information about the content of its advertising packages, thereby misleading consumers.

The portal offers advertising packages at different prices for both private advertisers and real estate agencies. The service of highlighting advertisements (i.e. ranking in the order of display) that comes with private advertisers’ paid advertising packages or can be purchased by them as an extra service is based on a special credit system, but the operator is likely to be hiding the important features of this from consumers. Private advertisers thus presumably do not receive adequate information about the existence of the credit system itself, nor about the amount of credits credited for the package fee, nor about how these actually influence the order in which advertisements are displayed. In addition, consumers probably do not receive adequate information about the fact that real estate agencies advertising through the site can in a targeted manner position their own advertisements before consumers’ advertisements, using a bidding facility available only to them.

The initiation of the competition supervision proceedings does not mean that the company has committed the violation. The proceeding is aimed at clarifying the facts and thereby proving the alleged infringement. The time limit for the completion of the proceeding is three months which, where justified, may be extended on two occasions by a maximum of two months each.

Official registration number of the case: VJ/5/2022.

GVH Press Office

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