The amendment to the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection aims to speed up the process of elimination of practices harmful to consumers and streamline the model of control of abusive contract clauses.

The consumer amendment to the Act on competition and consumer protection, adopted by the government today, follows a thorough analysis of misselling practices in the financial industry and other sectors carried by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and UOKiK.

Key new provisions include:

• Introduction of a ban on offering clients financial services that do not match their needs or offering them in a manner that does not reveal their true character;
• Introduction of a temporary prohibition which is meant to enable faster reaction to practices, including misselling, that may lead to substantial consumer detriment and abuse of collective consumer interests;
• Introduction of a mystery shopper practice to allow for collection of evidence for investigations on practices that infringe consumers’ collective interests;
• Poland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Authority will now be able to issue opinion in private consumer abuse cases in common courts should the public interest require it;
• UOKiK will publish statements and alerts in public TV and radio – these will provide for swift and efficient warning to consumers about practices and situations which might put their interests at risk;
• The  current complex system of eliminating unfair contract clauses, which has proven ineffective, will be replaced by a model of abstract control of terms of contract. As part of an administrative decision, the Authority will be able to rule on abusive terms of contracts and forbid such model contracts from further use. These decisions will be subject to review by court.

New regulations were subject to wide consultations with key stakeholders, including the business community, lawyers and consumer organizations.

The draft will now be read in Parliament. The new regulation foresees a six-month vacatio legis period to allow businesses to adjust to the new provisions.

Additional information for the media:

Press Office, UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw
Phone.: +48 22 827 28 92, +48 22 55 60 314, +48 22 55 60 430
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl