The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) Tomasz Chróstny has imposed over 220 thousand fines on Fundico for misleading consumers and failing to cooperate with the Office during proceedings.
Fundico is a company which pursues claims against banks connected with early loan repayment or resulting from abusive clauses in mortgage loan agreements. The company posted misleading offers on its website, even when it turned out that the Swiss Frank cases did not end with quick settlements, and it had problems with liquidity and settling current accounts and liabilities.
„In the course of the proceedings, we found that Fundico misled consumers on two key issues taken into account when making a decision to invest money. Firstly, it was unjustify to state that there was no risk, while the success of the investment depended, inter alia, on the bascis of previously won court cases. Second, it offered unrealistic, above-average profits, although Fundico realized that they were impossible to achieve. As a result, some consumers who trusted Fundico’s assurances lost their invested capital” says Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
Tomasz Chróstny imposed a fine of PLN 176,000 on Fundico for misleading the customers and 50,000. 50 thousand for failing to provide the requested information and documents, i.e. failing to cooperate with the Office. The company must inform all the injured parties by letter of the president’s decision and additionaly published this information on its website and Facebook.
Mariusz Adam Skiba, the president of Fundico, will also be fined for violating the collective interests of consumers.
„The managers of companies must not be allowed to get away with deliberately causing infringements against consumers. Therefore, I have imposed a fine on the President of Fundico. He was personally involved in both the creation of his company’s offer and its implementation as well as contacts with consumers. There will be more and more penalties of this type. We intend to punish managers more frequently for unfair practices towards consumers, so that it stops being profitable for them” announces Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.
The decisions are not yet binding.
