Integrity Authority and GVH announce new regulatory measures in Hungary

The Hungarian Integrity Authority (Integritás Hatóság) is launching a public registry of economic operators excluded from public procurement due to criminal activities. This measure, deemed essential for the resumption of EU funding, aims to prevent further abuses and ensure transparency. The registry will include entities whose leaders or owners have final court decisions against them for crimes defined in procurement laws. The authority noted that the registry is not intended as a permanent stigma, as companies can undergo a “self-cleansing” process to prove they have rectified the circumstances and restored their reliability to be removed from the list.

Separately, the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has imposed a 225 million HUF fine on the operators of the eMAG webstore, Dante International S.A. and Extreme Digital-eMAG Kft. This represents the second-largest follow-up investigation fine in the GVH's history. The penalty stems from the companies' failure to fully implement a previously agreed-upon 4 billion HUF package of measures intended to support Hungarian businesses and increase their online presence. The eMAG operators admitted to the failures and waived their right to legal remedy.