Up to a year “lock” to problematic webshops thanks to cooperation between NMHH and Nébih

Published: 6 May 2021

With the rise of the online sales channel, inspection authorities are finding more and more websites in Hungary offering counterfeit, illicitly manufactured or marketed products for sale. The most effective way to combat fraudsters is through cooperation between authorities, so the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) and the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih) have signed a cooperation agreement to act in a coordinated way.

Online sales pose an increasing risk to food chain safety as well. In the course of their work, the Nébih’s staff have encountered, among other things, the supply of unauthorised veterinary medicines and products and services subject to authorisation, as well as the distribution of prescription medicines without a prescription. Professionals also take regular action against websites selling food products, including food supplements, that pose a risk to human health or mislead consumers about the essential characteristics of the product.

The “Central Electronic Database of Decisions to Block Access” KEHTA operated by the NMHH could help to prevent these illegal activities in the future. The recording of Nébih’s decisions in the KEHTA system will make it possible for the authority to make infringing websites inaccessible for 365 days.

The signing of the cooperation agreement has laid the foundations in principle for the use of the system, followed by the establishment of the technological conditions. The authorities’ aim is to ensure that, the “black out” of websites that infringe food chain safety rules can start in practice as soon as possible, and possibly as early as June, in order to protect consumers.