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Government to Clamp Down on the “Shrinking Chocolate Bar” Phenomenon

Hungary Today 2024.01.10.

Have you experienced your package of chips getting lighter, and your chocolate bar getting smaller, while the price has remained the same? From March on, food retailers with a turnover of more than HUF 1 billion (EUR 2.6 mil.) will be obliged to indicate if the packaging of the products they sell has become smaller than before, informed the Hungarian Gazette on Tuesday, as reported be Index.hu.

According to the government’s decree, from March, for a given product, retailers will be obliged to indicate that the packaging of the product concerned has changed for a period of two months from the start of marketing a new, smaller packaging than that produced by the manufacturer between 1 January 2020 and 1 July 2023. The content and form of the information notice will be determined by the Minister responsible for trade, they added.

It was stressed that displaying such information may be omitted if, in addition to the new smaller pack sizes, the retailer continues to market the previous pack sizes. In addition, the manufacturer or first distributor in Hungary and the wholesaler must inform the trader of the reduction in the presentation of the product and the possible withdrawal of the previous presentation units at the time of the first sale of the product concerned. They must also inform the National Food Chain Safety Office.

The Regulation also stipulates that in the event of failure to inform the trader, the consumer protection authority may impose a fine of HUF 1 million per product.

It is stated that if the trader started marketing the product subject to the information obligation in the period from 1 July 2023 to 29 February 2024 and continues to market the product, the trader must comply with the information obligation for the first time on 1 March 2024.

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Via Index.hu; Featured Image: Pixabay


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