• The President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, imposed a fine of over PLN 3 million on Neuca.
• This is the highest penalty imposed in anti-gridlock proceedings to date.
• The President of the Office also issued five decisions in which he refrained from imposing a fine on entrepreneurs.

Neuca S.A. is another company fined for excessive delays in making monetary payments to its contractors. This time, the President of UOKiK took a closer look at the pharmaceutical industry.

- The proceedings concerning excessive delays in payments confirmed that it was Neuca's practice to delay payments of remuneration to its contractors, says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

The administrative fine imposed by the President of UOKiK amounted to over PLN 3 million.

The amount of the fine – due to the applicable formula – reflects the scale of the payment gridlock generated by the company in the economy, which exceeded one billion Polish zloty in the analysed period.

Pursuant to the regulations, the amount of administrative fine is calculated according to a formula and, in addition to the amount of the monetary consideration not paid on time, it also depends on the statutory interest for delays in commercial transactions applicable at the time of the decision and the length of the delay itself. In cases concerning payment gridlocks, intervention of the President of UOKiK is possible if the total amount of all monetary payments not made by an entrepreneur to its contractors or monetary payments made by an entrepreneur after the expiry of the time limit exceeds the amount of PLN 2 million.

- The action of Neuca S.A. are reprehensible insofar as they concern a pharmaceutical company which was not affected by the pandemic and on whose efficient functioning the health of many Poles depends. Therefore, there is no justification for a situation in which one of the largest entities in the pharmaceutical market fails to settle its obligations on time and finances its own operations at the expense of other entrepreneurs, says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

The investigation showed that there was no reasonable justification for the delay in payment. Explanations of the company, pointing to its difficult situation and failure to receive payments from its contractors, were not supported by the evidence gathered.

Penalty waiver - five decisions

In addition, the President of UOKiK found excessive delay in the fulfilment of monetary payments by the following five entrepreneurs:

• Anwim S.A. from Warsaw – a wholesale of fuels,
• Zakłady Mięsne Skiba S.A. from Chojnice – a meet processing company,
• Amica S.A. from Wronki – a manufacturer of household appliances,
• Oninnen sp. z o.o. from Warsaw – a wholesale company,
• Altrad-Mostostal S.A. from Siedlce – a construction industry company.

In the case of these companies, the President of UOKiK refrained from imposing an administrative fine.  The current applicable provisions of the Anti-Gridlock Act oblige the President of UOKiK to refrain from imposing a penalty in each case when the sum of the monetary payments not received and received after the deadline by the companies is higher than the gridlock generated by them.

Visit the website dedicated to payment gridlocks

Examples of penalty calculation concerning specific debt amounts and the most important information about the powers of the President of UOKiK in the area of payment gridlocks can be found on a dedicated website. What is a gridlock, when can it be addressed by the President of UOKiK, how to report that an entrepreneur is not paying the remuneration due, and who can do it?

These questions and answers as well as many other can be found on zatoryplatnicze.uokik.gov.pl

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