THE STATE AUDIT OFFICE OF HUNGARY URGES THE REVISION OF THE REGULATION ON E-COMMERCE

The State Audit Office of Hungary published its report on e-commerce on 8 May 2020. They analysed the e-commerce trends in the period between 2010 and 2018 and concluded that e-commerce market has expanded significantly in the previous decade both on national and EU levels.

According to the findings, in Hungary the expansion of e-commerce market is mainly attributable to larger foreign companies. However, due to the extraordinary situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, smaller Hungarian retail companies also started to use webshops.

The State Audit Office of Hungary also identified several risks to public finances in relation to e-commerce, for example the tax evasion, breach of consumer protection regulations and unfair competition practices.

In the long term the e-commerce sales are likely to continue to increase; therefore, as a concluding remark, the State Audit Office urges the revision of the statutory provisions on e-commerce, in particular the respective tax, consumer protection and IT security provisions.