The annual presidential-level meeting of competition authorities from Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries was held in Shusha, Azerbaijan, in 2025. Gazdasági Versenyhivatal (GVH) President Rigó Csaba Balázs attended the event.
GVH president's remarks
In his address, Rigó Csaba Balázs warned that the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and shifts in the inflationary environment pose new challenges for competition enforcement and consumer protection. He stressed that one of the key tasks for competition authorities is to ensure the broad diffusion of AI benefits without undermining conditions for fair competition or consumer interests.
The GVH president also presented the authority's AI market analysis. Based on that analysis, the GVH has put forward several proposals for Hungarian lawmakers to address identified market risks.
Microsoft case and other matters
The agenda included the competition supervision procedure against Microsoft, which the GVH closed in spring 2025; according to the GVH, Microsoft made commitments of historic significance in that case.
Bilateral cooperation and action plan
During the meeting, Rigó Csaba Balázs held bilateral talks with the head of the Azerbaijani competition authority. The parties adopted a two-year action plan intended to implement, in the medium term, a previously signed cooperation agreement and to further strengthen professional ties between the two institutions.
Framework: the Organization of Turkic States and the cooperation platform
The meeting took place within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States, founded in 2009 to promote cooperation among Turkic-language countries. Current members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan; Hungary has participated with observer status since September 2018.
A formal cooperation platform for competition authorities was established in January 2024 in Istanbul at the initiative of the Turkish competition authority; the Hungarian GVH joined as an observer. Since then the platform has regularly organised presidential-level meetings: the most recent prior meeting took place in April 2025 in Budapest, hosted by the GVH, where AI-related competition and consumer-protection issues and challenges in cartel enforcement were discussed.
Why it matters
The meeting underlines growing regional focus by competition authorities on the market and consumer impacts of AI and macroeconomic changes. Sharing the GVH's analyses and proposals, together with strengthened bilateral and regional cooperation, can help authorities coordinate more effectively against anticompetitive conduct and consumer risks.
Photo: Panya_photo / Shutterstock
