Temu's 'up to 95% off' was built on crossed-out prices that never were

Temu, the Chinese marketplace operated in Europe by Whaleco Technology, sold to Hungarian consumers with a familiar toolkit: crossed-out 'was' prices next to the current price, discounts advertised as 'up to 95%' or more, products flagged as on sale, and urgent countdown-style notifications. The GVH opened a competition-supervision proceeding in March 2024.

At the end of April 2026 the GVH closed case VJ/7/2024 with findings across the board: the crossed-out prices falsely created the impression of reductions; the 'up to 95%' discounts could not be substantiated, and Temu admitted they were unavailable in certain cases; some products were shown as on sale when no discounted price existed at all; the urgent messaging exerted psychological pressure through content and presentation; and environmental claims were misleading too.

The bill had two parts. Temu paid a one-time fine of 437,000,000 forints to the state budget, and committed at least 882,000,000 forints to consumers: 2,000 forints each to everyone who bought on Temu between November 2023 and September 2024, claimed through an emailed activation link. If the payouts fall short of 882 million, the difference becomes an extra fine — over 1.3 billion forints in total for a discount display.