Media Council: HUF 1.2 million fine to TV2 for surreptitious advertising

Published: 4 March 2021

At its last meeting, the Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) imposed a penalty of HUF 1.2 million on the service provider of TV2 for surreptitious advertising of a fashion store. The Media Council also made decisions on radio tenders.

At this week’s meeting, the Media Council declared the radio tender procedure for the use of a small-community Berettyóújfalu frequency unsuccessful, as the submitted tender bid was invalid.  The council carried out a formal review of the bids submitted for the community use of the Budapest 98.0 MHz district frequency and registered Match Point Official Kft. for the tender. The council approved the draft calls for tender for the community use of the local frequencies of Szekszárd 104.5 MHz and Salgótarján 99.3 MHz. These shall be published on the website on Friday.

The Media Council imposed a penalty of HUF 1.2 million on the service provider of TV2 for surreptitious advertising when providing detailed information about the products of a fashion store supporting the programme in one of the episodes of Mokka in October, and encouraging viewers to buy these products. This is only permitted by law in an advertising block. When imposing a fine, the Media Council always assesses the type and level of legal consequence based on a graduated approach and the principle of proportionality by taking into account all the circumstances of each case.

The Media Council approved and shall publish a summary of online radio for 2020 on its website.

The full agenda of the weekly meetings of the Media Council is available on the council’s website together with the minutes of the sessions and all the resolutions – the latest documents are published after the necessary certification and administration processes.