EU rules Hungary's advertisement tax unlawful

The European Union (EU) regulators ruled on Friday that Hungary's advertisement tax breached the bloc's state aid regulations and ordered Budapest to stop the "wrongdoing".

Hungary's progressive tax rates granted a selective advantage to certain companies and as well unduly favored companies that did not make a profit in 2013 by allowing them to pay less tax, said the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, in a statement.

Meanwhile, an amended version of Hungary's tax regime, in force since July last year, failed to fully address Brussels' concerns, the statement said.

Hungary was required to remove unfair treatment under its tax system as well as the amended version and determine the precise amounts of tax to be recovered from each company. Endit