6 May 2022, Budapest – Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, led the panel discussion on sustainability at the Berlin conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), which brings together the world's competition agencies. At the same time, the Hungarian authority has been selected as co-chair of an important professional working group of the world organization.


Following the Hungarian organisation of last year’s event, Berlin hosted the annual conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), which brings together more than 130 competition authorities around the world. At the world summit of competition agencies, Secretary General Attila Sipos led the Hungarian delegation, which was active on several topics. The special breakout session of the conference on sustainability was moderated by Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, the GVH, where, next to German, Brazilian and South African experts, the Head of Competition Division of the OECD also participated. The Hungarian Competition Authority is now one of the most important experts of the topic on the international stage, having last year became the first in the world to assess the practice of taking environmental sustainability into account in the application of competition law. The article presenting the pioneering project was also included in the jubilee study volume ICN@20, published on Friday, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the International Competition Network.

Within the framework of the conference, the GVH took over the post of co-chair of the Agency Effectiveness Working Group of the ICN. Zombor Berezvai, Chief economist of the GVH, represented Hungary as a speaker in the breakout session of this Working Group. The Hungarian national competition authority is also particularly active among the competition authorities in this field with its regular ex-ante impact assessment of welfare gains, as well as with up-to-date tools for the effective mapping of markets, the accelerated sector inquiries. The competition authority will also continue its work as a member of the ICN Special Project Group on International Cooperation.

At the event Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, held a discussion with Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, the host German competition authority, who accepted the invitation of the Hungarian delegation to Budapest. ICN leaders in Berlin also decided that the Spanish national competition authority could host the world meeting in Barcelona in 2023.

In addition to the professional work carried out within the framework of the ICN conference, András Tóth, President of the Competition Council and Vice-President of the Authority, was invited to a by-invitation-only roundtable discussion of Concurrences, one of the world's leading international competition law portals. The online roundtable to be chaired by Frédéric Jenny, President of the OECD Competition Committee, will be dedicated to the practical aspects of the enforcement of the new EU legislation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Press Office of the GVH

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