Hungarian Car Importers Association
After 1989, the liberalization of the Hungarian vehicle trade created a demand of an association to represent the companies dealing with vehicle import, thus The Hungarian Car Importers Association (MGE) was established in 1990. The aim of the founders was, and is that MGE must create an equal, uniform market as well as fair economic and legal circumstances for all participants and their customers. It is also an important priority that legal regulations must support the protection of this environment and decrease of the average age of the car park.
The membership of MGE
The main condition to become an MGE member is to acquire and keep the original import right from the manufacturer or its representative.
Until 1995, MGE dealt only with passenger cars and LCVs. Since 1995 MGE has been dealing also with trucks, since 1997 with motorbikes as well. Nowadays more than 95% of the passenger car import and more than 80% of the motorbike import is dealt by our member companies and their networks. MGE has 37 member companies, among them 24 passenger car and LCV, 8 truck, 4 motorbike and 1 agricultural tractor importer. The owners of our member companies are mostly the manufacturers, which means a mostly direct brand ownership system. The sales network has some 800 dealers, who are mostly Hungarian-owned private entrepreneurs. The appropriate service, parts supply and warranty is provided by the service network of these dealers.
Interest representation
This activity means, that MGE advises and criticizes all drafts of the vehicle market related legal regulations and wishes to motivate the legislators to consider the interests of all car market related parties and the consumers?. This activity also relates to the traffic safety and security and environment protection points. We keep a continuous relationship with ministries, authorities in order to support our initiatives on vehicle related regulations.
The structure of MGE
General Assembly
The highest representative of MGE is the General Assembly (GA), where all member companies are represented by their executives. The GA is convened at least once a year. The main task of the GA is to draft and update the General Rules, to elect the Board of MGE, to discuss and accept the annual budget, P/L and B/S, and anything else which belongs to the competence of the GA.
Board of MGE
The Board?s members consist of (i) two co-presidents, (ii) 5 electives (of which 3 are passenger car and LCV importers, and 1 ? 1 from truck and motorbike businesses). The two co-presidents represent MGE individually including contracting with third parties and managing related issues. The co-presidents manage the MGE and define the draft rules of operation and present them for the Board for approval. The duties are split between the co-presidents as defined in the attachment of the Operational Rules (SzMSz). Basically, one of them is responsible for the back-office activities, the other for communication, member companies and press relations. The member companies pay a membership fee to cover the operational costs of MGE.
Ethic Codex
As practically all manufacturers are present in Hungary and participate in a strong competition on a very competitive market, MGE established the Ethic Code even though up till now we did not experience any unfair market practice.
The implementation of the Ethic Codex is the responsibility of the Ethic Committee.
The Ethic Codex and the Hungarian Competition Act is compulsory for all member companies.
