• Does a car park manager restrict complaint submission methods? Do they claim that the response time can be extended? Do they threaten you with debt collection and enforcement costs? These are illegal activities.
• President of UOKiK has imposed a fine of more than PLN 820 thousand on APCOA Parking Polska and requested clarifications from ATPark and Europark.

APCOA Parking Polska is an operator of car parks located in the vicinity of hospitals, office buildings, hotels and shopping centres throughout Poland. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has received numerous complaints concerning this entrepreneur’s practices. The President of UOKiK has found a violation of the collective consumer interests – the company must pay a fine of more than PLN 820 thousand (PLN 822,850).

Unfair complaint rules

APCOA Parking Polska restricted methods of submitting complaints by consumers, allowing only two types of notifications: via the form on the website or by letter to the address of the registered office. Meanwhile, it should also take into account the ones submitted in other forms, e.g. by e-mail or in person. In addition, the company informed that the time limit for handling complaints could be longer than 30 days. This is contrary to the Consumer Rights Act which provides that it is not possible to extend the response time on one’s own. Until 1 January 2023, if an entrepreneur had failed to reply within 30 days as of receipt of the notification, the complaint would have been recognised. The new regulations involving the implementation of the Omnibus Directive have shortened this timeframe to 14 days.

Inevitable costs?

Some consumers who submitted a complaint on the “request for payment of an additional fee” for using APCOA parking spaces learned that if they failed to pay the indicated amount, they would bear the costs of debt collection and of enforcement proceedings. The company’s claim was worded categorically and pointed to the inevitability of these events. The purpose of the message was to raise an unjustified concern and could have affected the decision to pay the fees requested by the company. Meanwhile, APCOA would first have to refer the case to court proceedings and then to an enforcement authority, such as a bailiff. Moreover, at each of these stages consumers could be exempted from incurring additional costs.

- The complaint procedure may not restrict consumer rights. The consumers are the ones, rather than an entrepreneur, to choose a preferred way to lodge a complaint. Moreover, the information provided by the company should be true and complete. If consumers were not misled, they could decide whether to pursue their rights further or to defend themselves before a court – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

APCOA Parking Polska will have to pay more than PLN 820 thousand as soon as the decision becomes final and will have to inform its consumers about the decision of the President of UOKiK who will be able to assert their rights in court on this basis.

Car parks under scrutiny of UOKiK

This is not the only activity of the Authority with regard to car park managers. Soft calls to change practices and provisions that may violate collective consumer interests were sent to ATPark from Jaworzno and Europark from Warsaw, operating throughout the country. Both entrepreneurs limit the methods of filing complaints and provide information on the need to incur additional costs in connection with failure to pay the requested fees.

The President of UOKiK has been watching car park cases for a long time and contests unfair practices applied by their managers. Recent decisions concerned car parks at supermarkets and car parks at the oncology hospital in Wrocław.

Consumer, please remember:

1. From 1 January, the period during which an entrepreneur must respond to a complaint will be 14 days. After that period, the complaint will be deemed justified.
2. The regulations do not specify the form of filing a complaint, you can do it, e.g. by means of a form made available, by mail to the address of the registered office, by e-mail or in person. The entrepreneur is obligated to take into account any type of notification received.
3. When entering a car park, you should know how much you pay for the parking service, the price should be clearly and unambiguously displayed.
4. The Authority does not contest the requirement to download tickets in parking spaces in front of shops, provided that consumers are duly informed about it.
5. In individual cases, contact the municipal or district consumer ombudsman.

Consumer Support:

Phone: +48 801 440 220 or +48 222 66 76 76 – consumer helpline
E-mail: porady@dlakonsumentow.pl
Consumer Ombudsmen – in your town or district

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone: 22 55 60 246
Email: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL
You can also follow us on Instagram: @uokikgovpl