In the summer of 2022, GVH initiated proceedings against Spark Networks Services GmbH, based in Germany, on suspicion that the company was likely to deceive its customers about key features of the service.
GVH found that the company had been so silent on the website and in the Android app that the app could not actually be used for dating with registration without a sign-up.
Free registered users cannot view other people’s profile photos and cannot send or read messages
– said the authority.
The company also provided misleading information about the available user base: it spoke of 15 million active members worldwide, with 800,000 new members joining every month. As it turned out, these statements were only true for the user circle inaccessible to Hungarian users, and did not indicate the real number of active members.
During the procedures, the company showed great cooperation, did not object to the facts investigated, admitted the violation, and waived its right to appeal. Taking these circumstances into account, GVH’s Competition Board reduced the fine amount by almost half and imposed a fine of HUF 169 million on the company.
It is mentioned in the announcement that this is not the first time that the Competition Authority has investigated online dating site services. In 2020, it imposed a fine of HUF 1.6 billion on the Luxembourg company that runs the dating sites be2.hu and academysingles.hu.
As we reported, GVH recently became the operator of Foodora, a Delivery Hero Hungary Kft. An investigation was also opened against N Properly informing consumers of the details of the coupon offer and collecting fees for using the system.
