These are just some examples of the UOKIK activities in 2019.
Competition-restricting practices
In 2019, the President of UOKiK initiated 56 explanatory proceedings and 14 anti-monopoly proceedings, including 13 proceedings on illicit agreements and 1 on abuse of dominant market position. Furthermore, the office issued 82 soft notices to businesses. They consist of requesting that unfair practices be changed or eliminated.
In 2019, UOKiK issued 12 decisions on anti-competitive practices, of which 11 concerned prohibited horizontal agreements and one concerned a vertical agreement. The total financial fines for competition-restricting practices amounted to PLN 5.2 million. In two cases, sanctions were reduced due to leniency scheme. Under the programme, the participant of an illicit agreement is treated in a less restrictive manner if they supply crucial evidence and cooperate with the Office. In 2019, entrepreneurs submitted seven applications for inclusion in the scheme.
Since April 2017, the UOKiK’s „Whistleblower” programme has been in place, under which the Office receives anonymous signals about potential breaches of competition-related regulations. Initially, whistleblowers could contact the Office by email or by calling a hotline. As of December 2019, notifications can be made through a special on-line platform that ensures complete anonymity. In 2019, UOKiK received 1531 notifications from anonymous whistleblowers, including 57 via the new platform. Some of them were used during 8 searches that the office conducted at the premises of 23 entrepreneurs. The search is a tool used in situations where it is suspected that the given entity is in possession of evidence of competition-restricting practices. It is conducted upon court authorisation only and, as a rule, is performed with the assistance of Police officers.
Control of concentration
Competition protection means also control of concentrations. In 2019, the Office instituted 298 investigations to examine whether mergers and acquisitions would adversely affect business competition. In 2019, 261 transaction approvals and 5 conditional approvals were granted. The vast majority of proceedings (over 96 percent) were completed in the first phase. Concentrations most often concerned the real estate industry (38), financial services (23) and trade (21).
Contractual advantage
2019 saw further UOKiK actions regarding the unfair use of contractual advantage in the trade in agricultural and food products. The President of the Office issued 5 decisions, including the first decision imposing a fine on an entrepreneur. It concerned T.B. Fruit Polska, and the fine for failing to meet agreed payment deadlines amounted to PLN 8.3 million. This accounted for 3 percent of the company’s turnover from the previous year, the highest fine for unfair use of a contractual advantage. 19 explanatory proceedings and one proper proceedings were initiated, concerning practices involving the abuse of superior bargaining power. Moreover, it issued 40 soft notices to businesses requesting them to provide clarifications or to discontinue the abuse of superior bargaining power against farmers.
Protection of collective consumer interests and abusive contractual clauses
The constantly recurring issue in decisions issued by the President were abusive contractual clauses concerning the method used by banks to determine exchange rates in model agreements for foreign currency mortgage loans. The judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (case C-260/18 Dziubak) of October 2019 proved to be extremely relevant to consumer protection and case law practice of the President of UOKiK. This judgement applies to each agreement containing abusive clauses, which is why it may be of key importance to borrowers when seeking claims against banks before common courts.
The President of UOKiK initiated 47 proceedings related to practices that violate collective consumer interests, 25 on declaring the provisions of a model contract to be unlawful, and 87 explanatory proceedings. The President of UOKiK issued 69 decisions regarding practices that violate collective consumer interests and 17 in cases concerning the recognition of model contractual clauses as abusive. Furthermore, a business’ commitment to change the practice was approved in 18 cases. Financial fines amounted in total to nearly PLN 240 million. We undertook numerous soft measures: as many as 546 requests were made to businesses to change their practices. In addition, 809 times a reasoned opinion was issued regarding people fighting for their rights in court.
Legislation
Being a governmental authority, UOKiK is also involved in creating effective legal regulations. In 2019, we analysed a total of 1255 draft legal acts and positions to draft acts of the Sejm, with a view to issuing an opinion on the potential impact on competition and the situation of consumers.
