Multinationals threaten to sue over Hungary contract

Three multinational tobacco companies are threatening to sue the Hungarian government if it does not launch a tender for a 20-year contract for the supply of tobacco products to retailers, according to a Reuters story relayed by the TMA.

Philip Morris International, JTI Hungary and Imperial Tobacco Group had earlier questioned the government’s decision to award the contract to British American Tobacco and Taban Trafik without calling an open tender.

PMI, JTI and Imperial said the selection process had been ‘untransparent and discriminatory’, and had violated the country’s obligations stemming from its EU membership.

The three companies said also that the new system ‘discriminates against foreign-owned firms and is against Europe-based firms that do not manufacture their products in Hungary’.

In a statement issued yesterday, the three companies said that the arrangements left them in a vulnerable position because they would be required to provide their sensitive pricing and inventory data to a close competitor. This seems to indicate that a tender for the contract would have to exclude bids from manufacturers whose products are sold in Hungary.