• Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK, has set forth allegations of violating collective consumer interests against the following lending companies: Szybka Gotówka, Gwarant24 and Centrum Rozwiązań Kredytowych.
• The companies alternately granted refinance loans to consumers to pay off their previous liabilities and charged high commissions.
• In the opinion of the President of UOKiK, this may have been an attempt to circumvent the regulations on maximum non-interest costs with regards to consumer loans.

The UOKiK has received consumer complaints about loans granted via portals such as Szybkagotowka.pl and Freezl.pl, owned by Compare Group from the United Arab Emirates. The Group cooperates with 3 loan companies in Warsaw: Szybka Gotówka, Gwarant24 and Centrum Rozwiązań Kredytowych, which grant loans for a period of 1 to 30 days. According to the consumers, if a person had difficulties to repay the liabilities by the original due date, the load companies, instead of extending the deadline, offered refinancing in another company. The above scenario was repeated many times in some of the cases. Each of those companies charged a commission that was financed, in whole or partially, from the subsequent loan. As a result, the amount to be repaid increased.

Example. A consumer borrowed PLN 4,300.00 and when the person was unable to repay this amount, the loan was refinanced alternately in different companies. The original loan company charged commission at the amount of PLN 1,180.20 (with a maximum legally possible amount of PLN 1,181.03). Afterwards, the loan, which was partially repaid by the consumer, was serviced by another company, and in subsequent stages of the rollover, the costs were: PLN 1,347.30, PLN 1,536.00, and PLN 1,752.90, respectively. Thus, after 4 months, due to the commissions alone, the debt increased by nearly PLN 6,000.00 (PLN 5,816.40).

Pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act, non-interest costs may not exceed 25% of the borrowed amount plus 30% for each year of the loan, however, not more than 100% of the loan. Fees for extending the deadline are also included in those costs. Moreover, if a business entity grants another loan, or other loans, to a person to repay a previous loan, within 120 days from the date of disbursement of the first financing, the business entity must include in the limit of non-interest costs the sum of the fees charged on all loans during that time. Such a solution is to prevent the entities from circumventing the statutory cost limits, e.g. granting 4 loans for 1 month with a cost limit of 4 x 27.5% instead of granting 1 loan for 4 months with a cost limit of 35%. Alternate refinancing of outstanding loans by companies that operate via portals Szybkagotowka.pl and Freezl.pl could be an attempt to circumvent those regulations.

- I set forth allegations of violating collective consumer interests against Szybka Gotówka, Gwarant24 and Centrum rozwiązań Kredytowych. In our view, the indicated entities attempt to circumvent the limitations on non-interest loan costs under the Consumer Credit Act. By doing so, the entities expose consumers to unlawfully high fees and commissions and the risk of falling into a debt spiral. For this type of practice, entities may be fined up to 10% of their annual turnover - says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The President of UOKiK made similar allegations, in March 2021, against Warsaw-based companies (currently under restructuring): Yes Finance, Liberis Polska, Duo Finance and Primus Finance. Those companies also granted loans alternately to consumers who faced difficulties with regards to repaying their previous liabilities. When charging commissions, the companies may not have taken into account the limitations on the amount of non-interest costs of consumer loans. The proceedings are pending.

Consumer assistance:

Telephone number: 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 – consumer helpline
E-mail: porady@dlakonsumentow.pl
Consumer right advisers – 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 60 246
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL