• Employees of UOKiK inspected 16 large stores with electronic equipment throughout Poland.
• It has been the largest action so far, in which UOKiK staff members acted as a mystery client.
• We checked information that shop assistants provide when selling a phone, computer, or TV.

Starting from 2016, employees of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection may act as a mystery client. Thus far, they have used this practice 26 times. This is how UOKiK can check how certain services or products are offered for sale by shop assistants. This is not a set-up. We do not buy products and no contracts are made. We come to a bank or to a trade show as ordinary consumers to check, from their point of view, what information is given there. Such an action always requires the court consent, so we must justify our reasons, Marek Niechciał, the President of UOKiK.

Inspection conducted in stores selling electronic equipment

The largest inspection with a mystery client involved took place at the end of 2018. In the pre-Christmas season, 36 employees of UOKiK visited 16 largest electronics stores (full list is attached hereto). These stores included: Komputronik, Media Markt, Mediaexpert, Neonet and RTV Euro AGD.

During this inspection, the OCCP wanted to verify whether and how shop assistants inform clients about their right to file a complaint under the warranty and whether they can distinguish a warranty from a guarantee. For example, a mystery client checked whether the store refused to consider complaints and sent the client back to the producer, or whether they made it dependent on whether the client kept a receipt.

Another issue that mystery shoppers were to examine was the so-called additional insurance against damage to equipment. Stores offer the so-called “extended guarantee” that has little in common with a guarantee. In fact, it is an additional insurance. Often its terms and conditions contain many exceptions that do not provide full protection to equipment, despite previous assurances from a shop assistant. Therefore, the office staff wanted to check how shop assistants informed about it and whether the purchase of such a service was required.

The inspections took place all over Poland. At present, UOKiK is conducting explanatory proceedings in which it analyses information gathered by mystery clients. Without a mystery client it would be very difficult for us to prove that some stores mislead their clients. Every day we deal with situations where consumer’s word is against entrepreneur’s word. This is why we are willing to try new tools to obtain solid evidence, says Piotr Adamczewski, director of the UOKiK Branch Office in Bydgoszcz.

An international conference organized by the Bydgoszcz branch provides an opportunity to discuss this tool. The meeting summarizes the cooperation between UOKiK and its Italian counterpart, L’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. Both institutions exchanged their experience for over a year and worked together on the EU project concerning inspection of stores selling electronic equipment and review of websites offering sightseeing tours. I am pleased with this cooperation. It helps us develop competences. Italian law does not provide for the mystery shopping practice, so employees of the Italian Competition Authority were curiously watching our operations. We are looking for new opportunities to collect evidence together. On the other hand, the Italian Competition Authority has considerable experience in monitoring websites containing offers that mislead consumers. This is a valuable lesson for us, adds Piotr Adamczewski.

Mystery client

• UOKiK may use this tool from 17 April 2016.
• The point is to check if any irregularities occur when products or services are offered for sale.
• Mystery shopping requires the consent of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.
• The whole event can be recorded (both audio and video recording is allowed).
• The Office does not use set-ups.
• Mystery clients make a purchase attempt, but no contract is concluded: they ask questions, check how the sales proceeds, what information is given.
• At the end, a mystery shopper/the OCCP employee shows his/her official ID card and delivers an authorization to carry out inspection and the court consent.

Consumer service:

Phone: 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 – consumer helpline
E-mail: porady@dlakonsumentow.pl
Consumer ‘s spokesman – in your town or district

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 314
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL