The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has issued a fine of approximately HUF 336 million (around €948,000) to Maspex Olympos Kft., one of the country’s largest non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers. The penalty was handed down after a regulatory investigation revealed that the company had engaged in illegal resale price maintenance by dictating minimum sales prices to its wholesale partners. Maspex Kft., which serves as the local subsidiary of the Polish Maspex group, distributes highly recognizable brands in the region, including Olympos, Kubu, Apenta, Topjoy, Nestea, and Tiger.
The antitrust scrutiny began following a sector-wide investigation by the GVH that analyzed commercial discount systems and beverage supplier contracts. Regulators discovered that Maspex Kft. had systematically included clauses in its wholesale agreements requiring partners to adhere to recommended minimum prices for both its alcoholic and non-alcoholic product lines. To enforce this, the manufacturer regularly distributed specialized price lists and explicitly instructed wholesalers that any lower prices could not be advertised directly. Instead, promotional materials were required to mask the actual discounted rates using ambiguous marketing phrases like “TOP PRICE” or “BOMB PRICE.”
The GVH Competition Council determined that these practices constituted a single, continuous infringement designed to restrict market competition, violating both Hungarian and European Union legal frameworks. Resale price maintenance is viewed as a severe antitrust breach because it artificially inflates consumer prices by preventing distributors from undercutting one another. The authority noted that even when minimum prices are not aggressively enforced in practice, simply including such restrictive pricing language in contracts illegally dampens the incentive for distributors to compete on price.
Maspex Kft. ultimately chose to settle the matter by cooperating with regulators and formally acknowledging the antitrust violation. In addition to the HUF 335.95 million fine, the company has been ordered to maintain a corporate compliance program for the next two years. While the manufacturer’s portion of the case has concluded, the wider anti-competitive investigation remains active, as the GVH continues to probe several major domestic retail chains—including Aldi, Auchan, CBA, Coop, Spar, and Tesco—for their potential involvement in the pricing scheme.
