The International Competition Network (ICN) held its annual conference from May 7 to 9, 2025, in Edinburgh, where Csaba Balázs Rigó, the president of the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH), participated and presented. During the conference, Rigó's membership in the ICN Steering Group was reaffirmed, and the GVH was elected as co-chair of the Cartel Working Group.

Established in 2001, the ICN serves as an informal forum for competition authorities worldwide to share experiences, practices, and discuss current trends in competition policy. Currently, 141 national competition authorities are members of the ICN.

The conference addressed a wide range of competition policy issues. GVH experts participated in several sessions, with Botond Horváth, head of the Cartel Office, sharing insights on cross-border cooperation in cartel investigations, and Csaba Kovács, deputy head of the Competition Economics and Market Research Office, presenting a study on the consumer impacts of opening the market for COVID-19 antigen rapid tests.

The GVH has been an active member of the ICN, having co-chaired the Agency Effectiveness Working Group (AEWG) from 2022 to 2025. The authority was recognized for its work and elected as co-chair of the Cartel Working Group for the next three-year term, alongside competition authorities from the United Kingdom, India, and New Zealand. The GVH also continues to be an active member of the AEWG, leading its economic sub-group.

During the conference, Rigó emphasized the challenges faced by agriculture, the food industry, and trade in recent years, particularly during periods of high food inflation. He stated, “It is our duty to do everything we can to support economic growth and price stability through the tools at our disposal, primarily by stimulating competition.”

As of July 1, 2023, the Hungarian government launched an online Price Monitoring system operated by the GVH, which has conducted several investigations and is currently carrying out two expedited sector inquiries in the food markets. The results of these inquiries will be shared internationally as part of the ICN's food market-focused project.

The annual meeting also reaffirmed the membership of the ICN Steering Group, including Rigó's ongoing membership since 2021. This membership allows the GVH president to collaborate with leaders from competition authorities in countries such as the United States, Australia, Germany, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, the Philippines, France, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Singapore, Portugal, Mexico, South Africa, and Kenya. Notably, Rigó is the only representative from the region on the ICN Steering Group.