The company has flooded the European and U.S. online markets in recent months.Continue reading
Lidl Magyarország Kereskedelmi Bt. (Lidl Hungary) has been placed under competition supervision by the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) because the company may have misled consumers with unfounded market quality claims. In the view of Lidl Hungary, the company acted in accordance with the law in its campaign.
According to the GVH, the retailer, operating around 200 stores nationwide, referred to the online Árfigyelő (Price Monitor) provided by the GVH and suggested that their product range was generally the cheapest, based on a daily basket value that was presumably arbitrarily compiled.
Reacting to the proceedings, Lidl Hungary stressed in a statement that their campaign was based on data from the database operated by the GVH and available to everyone, and that the criteria used for comparison were fair, objective and accessible.
The aim of the price monitoring website is to enable consumers to compare retailers’ prices. The campaign also served this purpose,
the company explained.
They will cooperate with the authority in the investigation, Lidl Hungary said in its response.
The GVH recalled that the supermarket chain had used the slogan “Lidl: the champion of low prices” in its commercial communications since November last year. This was likely to convey the message to consumers that its product range was in fact the cheapest in general compared to all other supermarket chains in Hungary. The authority stressed that market quality claims are an important indicator of the price, quality and reliability of goods and services for consumers.
Therefore, according to the GVH Competition Council’s view and the case law of the courts,
such a claim can only be legally made if the company has objective data at the time of publication of the advertisement which fully substantiate the claim and clearly support it.
Companies should therefore exercise particular caution when using claims of market quality, for instance in relation to prices.
One of the primary aims of the online Price Monitor, operated by the GVH since July 1, 2023, is to help consumers make informed decisions by providing objective comparisons of daily prices across 78 product categories, helping them to save money and time. “Arbitrary, unsubstantiated and selective use of consumer prices, that can be tracked daily in the Price Monitor, in commercial communications could mislead consumers or adversely affect their decisions. Therefore, the national competition authority pays particular attention to commercial communication campaigns using the Price Monitor,” the GVH pointed out.
The opening of competition proceedings does not mean that the company has committed the infringement. The procedure aims to clarify the facts and thereby prove the alleged infringement,”
the GVH said. The duration of the procedure is three months, which may be extended twice, each time for a maximum of two months, if justified.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Lidl Magyarország