Media Markt Magyarország Kft. advertised four types of television sets with unrealistic price discounts – this was revealed by the Economic Competition Authority (GVH). The Competition Council of GVH imposed a 23.9 million fine on the electronics store chain, which admitted the violation, and in addition to the penalty, paid more than HUF 20 million in compensation to more than a thousand affected customers.
Last year, the national competition authority initiated proceedings against Media Markt Magyarország Kft., which operates the Media Markt stores and website, because, according to the suspicion, the company irregularly displayed the sale prices of certain electronic devices on its website. The competition supervision procedure revealed that in the case of four television sets, the prices marked as original were not previously applied by the supermarket chain for a long period of time, so they did not qualify as typical prices for the given products. The promise of savings compared to these, which were actually unrealistic, therefore deceived consumers.
Media Markt was cooperative in everything during the procedure, admitted the violation, waived its right to legal remedies, and submitted a compensation undertaking, which was required by the GVH. Based on all of this, the Competition Council of the GVH reduced the imposed fine by more than 35 percent, taking into account the priority cooperation and the voluntary compensation, which thus amounted to HUF 23.9 million.
As part of the offered compensation, Media Markt undertook to give gift cards worth between HUF 15,000 and HUF 50,000 to the more than 1,000 customers who purchased one of the four television sets during the infringement period. It is important that the gift cards can be redeemed in their entirety in the next 2 years without a redemption threshold. The department store chain is waiting until December 31, 2023 for applications from customers who purchased the affected televisions in one of the Media Markt stores, and it will notify online customers of the compensation by e-mail.
The refund is available to those who purchased Philips 55 PUS 7805/12 4K Ultra HD Saphi Smart LED Ambilight with a screen diameter of 139 cm between September 3, 2020 and May 8, 2022, between June 16, 2021 and March 7, 2022 164 cm Philips 65 Oled 705/12 4K Ultra HD Android Smart Oled Ambilight between August 12, 2021 and May 1, 2022 194 cm LG 75UP81003Lr Smart LED 1 4K Ultra HD, Hdr, webOs, ThinQ Al, or 2021 .between September 14 and May 1, 2022 Samsung Ue70Au8002Kxxh Crystal UHD 4K Smart LED TV.
(MTI)
