The Párkány (Štúrovo)-based online retailer Bensons Europe was imposed the maximum fine allowed by statute by Hungary’s Competition Office (GVH) for advertising vaping products to Hungarian consumers, the Hungarian news agency MTI reports. The company has to pay close to 39 million HUF (around $110,000) as penalty for their violations.
Elf Bars, banned in Hungary, and other electronic cigarettes were targeted at Hungarian consumers by Bensons, sold through their Hungarian-language webshop. This caught the attention of GVH last summer, and the authority launched an investigative probe into the matter.
Remote sales of vaping products are not permitted by Hungarian law, yet Bensons Europe suggested otherwise on their website.
This, after a year of investigation, led to the highest possible sum to be levied on the company as a fine.
Another company, Yzer, based in the state of Illinois in the United States, was also under scrutiny by GVH for the very same reason. However, unlike Bensons Europe, they are yet to shut down their Hungarian webshop peddling vape products. Since they have not complied with the request to take down their site, an injunction has been issued by the court to compel them to do so.
In a statement publicly released by GVH, they also quote the president of the Hungarian tax authority, NAV, Ferenc Vágujhelyi, who has vowed to crack down on the illegal sales of these trendy tobacco products.
‘Illicit products worth over 160 million HUF have been seized and fines worth 20 million HUF have been levied’, MTI cites Vágujhelyi’s statement. This sum evidently does not include the most recent fine on Bensons Europe, which is, as written above, 39 million HUF per se.
GVH stresses that the unauthorised sale of Elf Bars is especially dangerous, given the fact that these flavoured tobacco products are very popular with young teenagers. We too have covered this issue on our site back in July 2022, reporting on the government’s efforts to curtail the use of these harmful nicotine-containing products among minors.
This article was written based on the reporting by MTI.
