Euclid Law has today lodged a State aid complaint with the European Commission, to challenge Hungarian advertising State aid in the Hungarian media sector. The Complainants are Alhambra Press, the publisher of the weekly Magyar Hang (Hungarian Voice) and one other Hungarian media group.
The economic and data analysis underpinning the complaint has been conducted by former Chief Economist at DG COMP, Professor Kai-Uwe Kühn. The work was also supported by a specialist research team.
The economic evidence and data show beyond reasonable doubt that the Hungarian media advertising landscape has been severely distorted by the unlawful allocation of government advertising revenue.
Media outlets aligned with the Hungarian Government have been subsidised to the tune of nearly EUR 1.1 billion since at least 2015, amounting to unlawful and incompatible State aid, contrary to EU Law.
Professor Kühn commented:
“We have applied well established economic analysis to the data and shown without any doubt that there has been selective advertising by the Hungarian State, compared to private advertising, in favour of media outlets politically aligned with the government. This has led to severe competitive distortions in the Hungarian media market”
Oliver Bretz, Partner at Euclid Law, commented:
“There is no difference between media and any other industry or sector: the EU State aid rules apply uniformly to ensure a level playing field. The economic study by Professor Kühn clearly shows that there has been very significant State aid over a period of years. It is now incumbent on the Commission to investigate and to recover that aid.”
A copy of the Euclid Law complaint and of Prof. Kühn’s economic study can be found here.
Download a copy of our press release here.
Contacts:
Oliver Bretz at Euclid Law – oliver.bretz@euclid-law.eu
Pawel Zukowski at Euclid Law – pawel.zukowski@euclid-law.eu
Media Contacts:
Peter Guilford at Shearwater Global – peter@shearwater.global
Caspar Macfie at Shearwater Global – caspar.macfie@shearwater.global