Court Rules On First Public Interest Action By The Competition Office

Certain terms and conditions used on a number of property marketing websites have been declared unfair and invalid by the Metropolitan Court, in the first ever public interest action brought by the Hungarian Competition Office.

The case concerned the general terms and conditions used by Experiment Entertainment Ltd. and Weltimmo S.r.o.

These companies had previously been investigated and fined HUF 6.6 million (c. €22,000) by HCO in 2010 for operating misleading practices towards consumers in various property marketing websites (www.ingatlandepo.com; www.ingatlanbazar.com and www.ingatlanbazar.net). These included:

• disregarding consumers' complaints
• misleading consumers about the status of certain advertisements