The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has today published its guidance document entitled ‘Advertisements Directed at Children’, which summarises relevant aspects of its law enforcement practice and aims to assist undertakings to comply with the law when they are designing and publishing their commercial communications.
While children and minors benefit from a wide range of protection against advertising practices, the GVH is currently focusing on one particular type of unlawful commercial practice, namely advertisements targeting children which contain a direct exhortation to buy an advertised product or which encourage children to persuade an adult to buy the product for them, given the frequency of such advertisements and the fact that the GVH has already imposed several fines[1] on undertakings for engaging in this unfair commercial practice.
In order to prevent the above-mentioned unfair commercial practice, the GVH recommends that undertakings take into account the findings and recommendations it has made in a number of specific cases in this area. These relate to, for example, the use of search words and content that are particularly appealing to children, as well as the use of references in online advertisements to channels visited by children. The GVH also recommends that consideration be given to the necessity of involving children in advertising activity and, in the case of online platforms, the inclusion of children due to age restrictions on use.
The guidance document is available on the GVH’s website: HERE
Budapest, 21 February 2020
Hungarian Competition Authority
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[1] VJ/123/2009., VJ/124/2009., VJ/22/2013., VJ/6/2019., VJ/8/2019.