The Gazdasági Versenyhivatal (the Hungarian Competition Authority, GVH) established that Irodatechnikai és Pénztárgép Szervizek Országos Ipartestülete (Hungarian Association of Office Technology and Cash Register Services, hereinafter IPSZOI) and a number of distributors and service companies had engaged in unlawful behaviour when they coordinated the prices for the annual review of cash registers and the related distribution fees, and furthermore, when they also published related recommendations. The GVH imposed fines amounting to a total of HUF 70 million (cca 210 thousand EUR) on the undertakings for the infringements.

The investigation of the GVH revealed that in 2014 IPSZOI set recommended prices for the annual review of online cash registers introduced at that time and communicated these prices to its members. The GVH found that the recommendations could be qualified as unlawful as their aim was to restrict economic competition.

The GVH also noted that parallel to the behaviour of IPSZOI, and partly in collaboration with it, several online cash register distributor undertakings and service providers held consultations. The participants jointly determined the prices of the annual review and the related distribution fees (hologram sticker). Most of the agreed prices were actually introduced and applied on the market by the participants.

The GVH imposed fines for the two related infringements on IPSZOI and the undertakings involved in the price determination: namely on ECR-Trade Pénztárgép Zrt, Micra-Metripond Kft, Montel Informatika Kft, PFK Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft, ATC Aircom Kft, Juta-Soft Kft and Pezo Info Kft.

In the case of one distributor the GVH did not impose a fine thanks to the cooperation of the undertaking, in the framework of which it submitted a leniency application, acknowledging the infringement and voluntarily attaching supporting evidence. For this reason, the GVH waived the fine that could have been imposed on the undertaking.

Case number: VJ/110/2015.

Budapest, 12 June 2019

Hungarian Competition Authority

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