The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (hereinafter the “UOKiK”) has steadily increased fines particularly for telecommunications companies who infringe upon collective consumer interests. As of 2008 these fines have usually been in the millions ranges, however late last year one fine reached a staggering amount of 21.262.842 PLN. The legal application of such high fines for practices which infringe on collective consumer interests has been provided for directly in the Article 106 of the Act of 16 February 2007 on competition and consumer protection (Journal of Laws of 21 March 2007, as amended) (hereinafter the “Act”).
Under the aforementioned provision, the President of the UOKiK can impose fines up to 10% of entrepreneur’s revenue from the preceding accounting year even when the company has unintentionally allowed the offending practice. Additionally, entrepreneurs can be fined with
amounts reaching the equivalent of 50.000.000 Euro if they are found to be uncooperative during an investigation conducted by UOKiK.
Practices which infringe collective consumer interests include: 1/ the use of standard boilerplate contracts that have been registered as illegal, 2/ violation of the duty to provide consumers with reliable, truthful and complete information, or 3/ unfair market practices or acts of unfair competition.
Over the last four years a significant increase in the amount of penalties imposed by the UOKiK for practices detrimental to the collective interests of consumers can be observed. Examples include:
- in December 2008 Tele2 Polska Sp. z o.o. received a penalty of 3.978.380 PLN for engaging in practices which created hardships for consumers changing the telecommunication suppliers;
- a year later, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa Sp. z o.o. was fined in the amount of 8.729.993 PLN for disseminating false and misleading information about product features and pricing;
- in December 2010 Polska Telefonia Komórkowa – Centertel Sp. z o.o. received two multi-million fines for infringing collective consumer interests in: the first one in the amount of 4.839.375 PLN and the second one in the total amount of 16.260.300 PLN;
- finally, most recently, i.e. on December 30, 2011 the UOKiK imposed a fine of 21.262.842 PLN on Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa S.A. after it decided that the company was engaged in unfair market practices related to misleading activity undertaken in the course of its lottery.
The UOKiK is of the firm opinion that such harsh fines will strengthen the market and make it more secure for its participants in addition to acting as a deterrent to collusive activities. It is noteworthy to mention that UOKiK decisions often become the subject of appeals in the competition and consumer protection courts.