The airline may again have engaged in unfair commercial practices
Budapest, 6 August 2024 - The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has opened a competition supervision proceeding against Wizz Air Hungary Zrt (Wizz Air) for allegedly violating the prohibition of unfair commercial practices. The GVH suspects that the company's booking system violated the requirements of professional diligence and that it concealed material information on service charges.
On Saturday 3 August 2024, the Hungarian Competition Authority closed its latest proceedings against Wizz Air. The company had concealed the fact that "additional services" included in some of its packages could be purchased separately by consumers and had made commercial communications about the essential features of its automatic check-in service in breach of the duty of care. The GVH's Competition Council fined the company more than HUF 307 million for the above infringements. The Hungarian Competition Authority is also currently investigating Wizz Air for allegedly concealing important information from passengers.
The GVH has now opened a new competition supervision proceeding because it suspects that:
- Wizz Air is unlikely to meet the requirement of professional diligence because its booking system does not ensure predictability and reliability in its information practices on service charges, as charges for the same service on different devices (e.g., two mobile phones or mobile and desktop) may differ in some cases.
- the undertaking is also allegedly concealing from consumers the material fact that it will not be able to provide the service at the displayed prices throughout the booking process, in relation to the service fees displayed on its website and app.
The opening of competition supervision proceedings does not mean that the undertaking has committed the infringement. The proceeding aims at clarifying the facts and thereby proving the alleged infringement. The time allowed for the proceeding is three months, which may be extended twice, each time for a maximum of two months, where justified. The Hungarian Competition Authority points out that, under the Hungarian Competition Act, the period from the date on which the undertaking is requested to provide the information necessary to clarify the facts until the date on which the undertaking is required to do so does not count towards the time limit for the administration of the case.
In recent years, the Hungarian Competition Authority has been closely monitoring the domestic air transport market. In October 2022, the national competition authority carried out a sweep to investigate whether the websites of airlines available in Hungary, including low-cost/discount airlines, and popular domestic price comparison websites use so-called dark patterns in their ticketing and advertising practices.
The GVH has recently received an increasing number of complaints and notifications about airline practices. In view of the increasing number of consumer complaints and market anomalies related to operational problems in the air transport market, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH, has used his powers to send a warning to the executives of several airlines operating in the Hungarian market.
Official registration number of the case: VJ/37/2024.
GVH Public Service Communications Section
Further information:
Bálint Horváth, Head of Communication +36 20 238 6939
Katalin Gondolovics, Spokesperson +36 30 603 1170