The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) initiated a competition supervision proceeding against Monsanto Hungária Kft. for an alleged violation of the prohibitions of misleading advertising and misleading of business partners.

The GVH launched its investigation on 19 December due to the suspicion that the undertaking’s behaviour during the promotion of its DEKALB oilseed in 2014, in which it provided unclear, incomprehensible, ambiguous information about its winter oilseed trial, was presumably capable of influencing its business partners’ behaviour.

The GVH suspects that the undertaking under investigation has presumably violated, by the above described conduct which was carried out until 30 June 2014, the provisions of the Act on Business Advertising Activity. Due to legislative changes in which the provisions relating to misleading advertising and misleading business partners were incorporated into the Hungarian Competition Act, the latter Act was applied to the undertaking’s conduct which was carried out after 1 July 2014.

The completion of the procedure is necessary in order to protect the public interest, having regard to the fact that if the undertaking’s conduct is found to be unlawful it will have affected customers throughout the whole territory of Hungary.

The initiation of the competition supervision proceeding does not mean that the undertaking in question has actually committed an infringement. The proceeding seeks to clarify the facts and to prove that the presumed infringement has been committed. According to the Act these proceedings must be closed within 6 months, however, this time limit can be extended two times by a further 6 months, depending on the complexity of the case.

Case number: Vj-123/2014.

Budapest, 10 January 2015

Hungarian Competition Authority

Further information:
Andrea BASA
Spokesperson
Mail: 1054 Budapest, V. ker. Alkotmány u. 5.
Postal address: 1391 Budapest, 62. POB 211
Tel: (+36-1) 472-8902
Email: basa.andrea@gvh.hupress@gvh.hu
http://www.gvh.hu

Printable version in PDF