• Have you made a complaint or claim about Nowa Telefonia impersonating your current operator?
• The company will pay you PLN 60 in compensation, refund the penalty for contract termination or allow you to terminate the contract at no cost.
• This is the result of a decision of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) to accept the commitment proposed by Nowa Telefonia.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection issued a decision against the company called Nowa Telefonia from Warsaw. The company offers telecommunications services. Contracts are concluded in consumers’ homes. Consumer complaints suggest that Nowa Telefonia may have misled them by suggesting that it represents their current operator, which is offering them a change to more favourable contractual terms. Example complaints:

• The man said that he would reduce our service fee by PLN 10, that in October 2017 we would still get a standard invoice from Orange, and in November 2017 we would receive an invoice from Orange reduced by PLN 10. We were convinced the whole time that we were talking to a representative of Orange. That is why I decided to sign the document they presented me with.
• I have a landline phone (...) registered with Telestrada S.A. (...) I was informed by phone that the company’s employee would come to me to renew my contract and at the same time offer a second phone as part of a promotion. I was convinced I was talking to a Telestrada representative. I was approached by a gentleman who, after I stated that I had signed the previous contract with someone else, said that the previous employee was from Jasło and he was from Sanok.

Misleading consumers is an unfair market practice. It is punishable by a penalty of up to 10% of turnover. However, UOKiK refrained from imposing the penalty and accepted Nowa Telefonia’s commitment to remove the effects of these practices. - We have decided that it would be better if the company compensates the wronged parties. As a result of its dishonest actions, consumers could have unknowingly changed their operator. For them, this could have been linked to high financial penalties for terminating the contract: with the current or the new company - says Marek Niechciał, President of UOKiK.

Nowa Telefonia has to:

• pay PLN 60 in compensation to each customer who, between 1 January 2016 and 20 August 2019, lodged a complaint to the company or to, for example, UOKiK or consumer ombudsman,
• review complaints and grievances from that period and accept them,
• remit any penalties charged or refund any penalties paid by those consumers who terminated their contracts with Nowa Telefonia after their complaint had been rejected or not processed,
• enable termination of the contract without incurring any costs for customers who, after their complaint had been rejected or not processed, are still the company’s customers,
• notify consumers by registered letter of the compensation they are entitled to.

Check the details in the UOKiK’s decision.

Support for consumers:

Tel. 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 - Consumer Helpline
E-mail: porady@dlakonsumentow.pl
Consumer Ombudsmen - in your city or district
Regional Consumer Centres: 22 299 60 90 - Dlakonsumenta.pl