On Thursday, bomb alarms were announced in three Tescos: Budakeszin, Budaörsön and Páty. In Budakeszin, two police cars arrived at the scene at 2:45 p.m., and the store was surrounded with cordon tape.
In response to Index’s inquiry, the Pest County Police Headquarters confirmed that there was a bomb scare in Páty and Budakeszin, and that the Budaörs department store was also affected by the threat of public danger.
The spokesperson of the Pest County Police Headquarters, Berki Bianka Szabóné, told Index that a report was received by the police, which led to the evacuation of the building. As he said
NO EXPLOSIVES WERE FOUND IN THE BUILDING.
Berki Bianka Szabóné announced that the Budaörs Police Department initiated criminal proceedings for threats of public danger. He added that they are currently investigating the circumstances of the case. It is a striking coincidence that the GVH raided the site at this time.
Later, at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, the Budapest Környéke portal reported that a bomb alarm had also been triggered in the Tesco Express store in Páty, the store was evacuated and temporarily closed until the investigation, and later reopened.
Bomb alert in Tesco at the time of the raid
The GVH commented on Thursday’s events in response to Index’s request on Friday, and we are publishing their answer unchanged: “We confirm the information that when the investigators of the competition authority appeared on Thursday, May 25, for an unannounced on-site search at one of the premises of Tesco-Globál Aruházak Zrt., on the spot – and according to press reports, at the same time in several other stores of the supermarket chain – a bomb alarm was sounded during the search. The bomb alarm did not prevent the success of the raid, as the investigators of the GVH continued to gather evidence after waiting and completed the on-site search in accordance with their purpose.
“Strange” cases do occur
On the basis of the Competition Act, the GVH may carry out on-site research (raiding) in the case of suspected agreements restricting competition and abuse of a dominant position, as well as when gathering information on merger procedures and accelerated sector investigations.
The purpose of the on-site research is for the GVH to look for evidence of possible violations of the law, and (during accelerated sector investigations) to obtain reliable and immediate data on the state of market competition.
The GVH’s on-site searches are always subject to prior judicial permission, and the search can take place if the authority makes it likely that other investigative actions would not lead to results, and it can be assumed that the persons concerned would not voluntarily make the evidence available to the authority.
During the GVH’s raids, there are sometimes strange or even amusing cases that the authority’s professionals may have encountered – however, in the end, these could not once prevent the success of the competition supervision action
the competition office told Index. They noted that more information about the goals of the raids and some interesting stories can be found on the GVH podcast channel.
On Friday, we presented the results of the Economic Competition Authority’s research, according to which there is a well-founded suspicion that the Hungarian soft drink manufacturing subsidiary of the Polish Maspex group is likely to have several resale partners, including large food chains – including Aldi, CBA, some COOP partners and Tesco – cooperatively fixed the minimum consumer prices of some of its products.
The participants of the agreement were thus able to eliminate price competition, creating an artificially high price level, the competition office stated.
(Cover photo: Csaba Krizsán / MTI)
Tags: Index Economy bomb alarm sounded Tescos competition office check
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