The Economic Competition Authority (GVH) fined Magyar Telekom HUF 310 million for misleading consumers and falsely advertising unlimited mobile internet package options, the GVH told MTI.
In addition, the company must provide 4 gigabytes (GB) of additional data traffic to its consumers affected by the infringement as compensation.
Last year, the competition office launched an investigation against Magyar Telekom due to the promotion of its mobile internet price packages. The company's advertisements promised consumers unlimited access to, for example, social media services, specific chat applications, or certain TV and movie applications. The authority's investigation revealed: in fact, none of the options advertised as unlimited provided full freedom of charge, as some functions - such as voice and video calls in the case of chat applications, or video content when browsing social media - reduced the subscribers' data limit.
It was written that Telekom typically did not provide information about these restrictions in its advertisements - and where it did, it did not make it clear which traffics were free of charge and which reduced the data limit included in the rate package. When imposing the HUF 310 million fine, the authority took into account, among other things, the fact that the service provider had deceived consumers ten times in the past 10 years.
At the same time, the GVH prohibited the company from continuing the practice and, in addition, obliged it to implement a reparation package aimed at compensating consumers, considering it as a fine reduction.
Magyar Telekom informed MTI that they will decide on the initiation of a possible judicial review after studying the decision of the competition office. The affected subscribers will be informed about the 4 GB extra data frame offered as compensation, which can be used domestically for 1 month, via SMS and invoice.
Source: MTI
Opening image: Magyar Telekom Facebook page
