The former Norwegian-owned operator of the market-leading online platform abused its dominant position
Budapest, 30 October, 2025 – The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has fined Használtauto.hu Kft. 550 million forints because the former operator of Hungary's market-leading online vehicle advertising site, the foreign-owned Adevinta Classified Media Hungary Kft., abused its dominant position. For several years, the company operated a subscription-based advertising package for its business customers which, due to its exclusivity clause, prevented business advertisers from advertising on competing sites. In doing so, the Norwegian-owned company deliberately restricted competition in the relevant market, which could have resulted in higher prices for Hungarian consumers and advertisers.
In December 2021, the Hungarian Competition Authority launched a competition supervision proceeding against Adevinta Classified Media Hungary Kft. (Adevinta), a Norwegian-owned company belonging to a multinational group that operated the Használtautó.hu website at the time, for alleged infringement of the prohibition on the abuse of economic dominance. The GVH noted that the so-called "exclusive package" applied by Adevinta from April 1, 2018, could potentially exclude competitors or prevent them from entering the market. The GVH initiated the case on a dual (Hungarian and EU) legal basis.
In the proceedings, the GVH conducted extensive data collection and carried out a complex (legal and economic) analysis based on a wide range of documents containing a large amount of evidence. It should also be noted that the undertaking subject to the proceedings requested several extensions of the deadline for preparing its submissions, which in itself significantly prolonged the duration of the proceedings.
An important factor in this case is that the hasznaltauto.hu platform has long been the largest and most dominant player in the Hungarian online vehicle classifieds market. According to all indicators, the site's market share remained at least 70% throughout the period under review.
The GVH found that, by introducing the exclusive package, Adevinta, on the one hand, legally prevented traders from advertising on competing platforms at the same time by imposing an exclusivity clause, and on the other hand, it provided automatic and free transfer options to another popular classified ad platform it operated (Jófogás Autó), thereby being able to satisfy the needs of customers who required multiple platforms (multi-homing) on its own. In doing so, Adevinta reduced the market entry opportunities for competing sites. The introduction of the exclusive package coincided with the launch of several competing sites.
Based on its analysis of the evidence, the GVH concluded that, with its exclusive package, Adevinta, which was in a dominant position in a market where competition was already limited, deliberately made it more difficult for competitors to access the market. The company's business conduct was thus capable of excluding competitors, preventing the development of competitive market processes, and deliberately weakening the ability of potential entrants to exert competitive pressure on the dominant undertaking.
Overall, the GVH Competition Council concluded that by introducing and applying the exclusive package, Adevinta had unjustifiably impeded market entry and created an unjustifiably disadvantageous market position for its competitors, i.e., it had abused its economic dominance. In doing so, the Norwegian-owned company violated not only Hungarian but also European Union competition law. Based on the above mentioned, the Competition Council imposed a fine of HUF 550 million on Adevinta's legal successor, Használtautó.hu Kft., which has been operating the hasznaltauto.hu website since the fall of 2023. The amount of the fine is justified by the fact that the infringement lasted for a long time – several years – and the operating company had significant sales revenue during the period in question. The Competition Council took into account, among other things, as a mitigating circumstance that Adevinta discontinued the distribution of exclusive packages after the proceedings were initiated.
In connection with the case, the GVH draws attention to the fact that undertakings with a dominant position in a market must act with particular caution in their business and commercial conduct and must not prevent potential competitors from entering the market or create an unreasonably disadvantageous market position for competitors.
The case number in the official records is: VJ/35/2021.
GVH Communications
Further information:
Bálint Horváth, Head of Communications +36 20 238 6939
Katalin Gondolovics, Press Officer +36 30 603 1170