The Economic Committee of the Hungarian Parliament has adopted the report of the Gazdasági Versenyhivatal (Hungarian Competition Authority, hereinafter: GVH) about its activity in 2018 and about its experience relating to the enforcement of the Competition Act.
Based on the results of the GVH’s most recent impact assessment the report states that the activity of the GVH also brings out financial benefits in monetary terms for society.
The impact assessment quantified the benefits gained by consumers resulting from the GVH’s protection of competition in its supervision procedures relating to anticompetitive agreements, abuse of power and mergers. According to the performed analysis, the social costs spent on the competition authority have been paid back several times over: between 2013 and 2018 consumers saved six times more than the GVH’s budget for the same period.
In 2018 the GVH elaborated a Digital Consumer Protection Strategy to keep up to date with the technological developments taking place in the 21st century. The aim of the strategy is to enable the GVH to respond more effectively to the new challenges arising on digital markets. Consequently, the Authority has been paying particular attention to commercial practices related to the digital economy and has initiated several proceedings in this area.
In addition, the Authority endeavoured to maintain and to develop the consumer-friendly nature of its operations. With this in mind, it has adopted a number of innovative solutions adapted to today’s needs and challenges. The frame application, iForm, which is an electronic form-writing application and the online access service, the Virtual Data Room, have provided consumers with considerable benefits.
The report in its entirety and the short summary are available on the GVH’s website.
Budapest, 26 November 2019
Hungarian Competition Authority
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