Several amendments to consumer protection legislation will enter into force in Hungary from May 28, 2022. This further strengthens the already extensive consumer rights. The most important changes: the list of trade practices considered unfair continues to expand, and the rules regarding price reduction are also tightened, read Mandineren.

On the last Saturday of May, the new rules for displaying special prices come into force. Their purpose is to prevent traders from applying misleading price reductions to consumers. This has been a standard practice until now: some retailers raised prices for a short time before the promotions, thus misleading their consumers about the actual extent of the discount.

According to the new rules, traders must indicate the previous price when announcing a price reduction. According to the new regulation, "previous price" means the price applied by the trader in the period of at least 30 days before the price reduction. The amount of the promotion can then only be shown in comparison to the lowest price applied in the previous 30-day period.

Another particularly important change is the amendment of the Act on the Prohibition of Unfair Trade Practices against Consumers. Based on the new provisions, online marketplaces or price comparison websites that aggregate the offers of several merchants must inform consumers about the main parameters for ranking the results that appear as a result of searches.  

In the future, webshops must refrain from posting untrue consumer ratings on behalf of others. These practices may be considered unfair without further consideration and may result in sanctions.

Many people must have experienced that, for example, the fabric softener bought in Austria is thicker, so the same effect can be achieved with a smaller amount during washing, but it may also have been noticed that Milka chocolate is somehow tastier if it is obtained from beyond Lajta. This will now change: as of Saturday, the distribution of double-quality products will also be sanctioned as an unfair commercial practice.  

In principle, the rule is that a good must be marketed in a European Union member state in such a way that, in terms of quality and use value, it is the same as goods marketed in other member states. Despite this, there are significant differences in the composition or characteristics of the goods.

Gergely Csurgai-Horváth's full detailed article on Mandiner .

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