Euronet has probably incurred additional costs for consumers by providing misleading commercial communications
Budapest, March 7, 2025 - The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has opened an investigation against Euronet, an operator of automated teller machines (ATMs). The GVH suspects that the company is misleading consumers by displaying available functions on the home screens of the ATMs it operates and by hiding certain functions, thereby causing them to incur additional costs that could otherwise be avoided.
Euronet Banktechnikai Kft (Euronet) is likely to mislead consumers by providing inaccurate information on the ATM user interface about the available services.
The GVH has noticed that since 5 July 2023, the company has been offering consumers only "cash and balance" and "other" options on the home screen of ATMs. Euronet may thus give consumers the impression that cash and balance withdrawals can only be made together, with a fee for both services, despite the fact that they can also use each service separately under the "other" category.
By the challenged practice, the business is limiting consumers' choice and may be forcing them to make a transactional choice they would not otherwise have made, and thus incurring additional costs.
The opening of competition proceedings does not mean that the undertaking has committed the infringement. The procedure aims at clarifying the facts and thereby proving the alleged infringement. The time allowed for the procedure is three months, which may be extended twice, each time for a maximum of two months, where justified. The GVH points out that, under the Competition Act, the period from the time a customer is requested to provide the information necessary to clarify the facts until the time the customer is required to do so does not count towards the time limit for the conduct of the case.
Case registration number: VJ/12/2025.
GVH Press
Further information:
Bálint Horváth, Head of Communication +36 20 238 6939
Katalin Gondolovics, Spokesperson +36 30 603 1170