Protecting children at the centre of consumer protection – results of the ban on serving alcohol, advertising regulations and inspections of children's camps

The protection of the healthy growth of children and young people is a shared social mission, since they are the foundation of our country's future. Consumer protection also has the key task of ensuring children's right to proper physical, mental, and moral development in accordance with the child protection objectives set out in the Fundamental Law and the Consumer Protection Policy. For this reason, the NATCP and the government agencies under its professional supervision continued to carry out extensive checks on compliance with consumer protection rules relating to the protection of children in 2025.

Last year's checks also covered, among other things, the prohibited serving and sale of alcoholic beverages and hookahs to persons under the age of 18. Government agencies carried out a total of 843 checks, of which 232 cases were found to be in violation of the law, resulting in a complaint rate of 28%. The inspections were carried out by the authorities in commercial establishments, liquor stores, gas stations, festivals, and tobacco shops. Fines totaling 362 million forints were imposed, but several proceedings are still ongoing.

In addition, ongoing checks were carried out on advertising regulations affecting children and young people, commercial regulations, and content published by influencers that could potentially be classified as advertising. Government agency staff carried out a total of 258 inspections in this area, uncovering 23 cases of violations in the operations of the companies investigated. The most common violation encountered by inspectors was a breach of advertising regulations (13% of complaints). In several cases, the offending companies displayed alcohol advertisements within 200 meters of educational establishments, on outdoor advertising media or in shop windows, but there were also cases where alcoholic beverages were promoted on the home page of online stores, which can be accessed by all visitors without restriction. The authority's employees imposed a total of 20 million forints in fines for violations of advertising rules and commercial regulations.

In addition to the above, in order to protect children, it was also justified to use consumer protection measures to examine whether the summer and autumn children's camps complied with the law. During the inspection, government agencies examined the declarations regarding the possession of a certificate of good conduct required for persons involved in the organization and operation of the camp. Government agencies carried out a total of 226 inspections. Of all the inspections, 23 gave rise to objections, in 17 of which neither a certificate of good conduct nor a relevant declaration was presented.

The protection of children is one of the key points of the 7-point consumer protection action plan announced last fall, so the NKFH and the government agencies under its professional supervision will continue to do everything in their power in 2026 to protect disadvantaged consumers.