PITEE Consumer Protection Association for Financial Services vs. Erste Group Bank AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG

Date filed

14 April 2023

Keywords

Consumer interests

Countries of harm

Hungary

Current status

Rejected

Sector

Financial

NCP

NCP Hungary

Allegations

On 14 April 2023, the Hungarian NGO PITEE Consumer Protection Association for Financial Services filed a complaint against Erste Group Bank AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG to the Austrian, Belgian, Italian, and Hungarian NCPs. The case concerned breaches of the Human Rights and Consumer Interests chapter of the Guidelines.

No further details about the case are known.

Relevant OECD Guidelines

Outcome

On 31 May 2023, the Hungarian NCP rejected the complaint on the basis that consideration of the issues would not have contributed to the purposes and effectiveness of the Guidelines.

The case has been recorded differently by the different NCPs to which it was filed. According to the Austrian NCP’s 2023 annual report to the OECD, two complaints were submitted by PITEE Consumer Protection Association for Financial Services vs. Erste Group Bank AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG. The complaint was filed on 14 April 2023 and finalised on 6 July 2023. According to the report, the complaint concerned financial and insurance activities, cited the Human Rights and Consumer Interests chapter, and was rejected because it was transferred to the Belgian, Italian and Hungarian NCPs. As at 17 June 2024, no further information about the complaint was available on the Austrian, Belgian, or Hungarian NCPs websites, but the Italian NCP’s website noted a complaint also submitted on 14 April 2023 by a Hungarian NGO against an enterprise in the corporate banking sector, which was “Also submitted to several other NCPs and attributed, by mutual agreement, to the competence of the Hungarian NCP primarily.” These cases logically appear to be one and the same and have been recorded in OECD Watch’s database as such.