Restricting the right to hold heat supply contrary to law, avoiding liability for failing to fulfill contract terms – to name a few prohibited practices applied by Tauron Ciepło. The company commited to change the practice in question

Tauron Ciepło, a company seated in Katowice, deals inter alia with heat supply in the territory of 15 towns of Śląsk, Zagłębie and Małopolska. In June, 2012 the President of UOKiK instituted two proceedings against the company - one concerned the infringement of collective consumer interests, the other – abuse of a dominant position. They revealed as much as 12 abusive clauses applied in contracts concluded with consumers; contracts with institutional recipients contained two prohibited clauses.

In one of challenged clauses applied in agreements with individual recipients, the undertaking restricts the right to hold heat supply whenever a consumer breaches any terms of the concluded contract. However, under the law an undertaking enjoys the right to hold heat supply only under clearly specified conditions – e.g. when the technical condition of installation may prove dangerous. Another prohibited practice applied by Tauron Ciepło was failing to fix compensations for consumers whenever the supply of heat was lower than assumed in the contract. Under the law, in such cases standard forms of agreements should determine the way of reducing the price. However, Tauron Ciepło does not provide any compensation rates at all.

As far as contracts with undertakings are concerned, the challenged clauses included avoiding by the undertaking the liability for damage suffered by recipients as a result of holding heat supply due to malfunction. Under the law, an undertaking may exclude their liability only in cases of force majeure. However, the agreement applied by Tauron Ciepło allows for such practice anytime.

In the course of proceedings the undertaking commited to change the challenged clauses. As a consequence, the President of UOKiK refrained from imposing fines and committed Tauron Ciepło to alter the applied standard forms of agreements and introduce annexes to the already binding agreements – both with consumers and undertakings.

For more information on media supply agreements, please follow the section questions and answers available on the Office’s website. Moreover, consumers may seek free of charge assistance in pursuing claims at the poviat or municipal consumer ombudsmen, municipal offices, poviat starost offices or at 800 007 707, available Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. Additionally, free expert assistance can be obtained by sending questions at the following address: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE], handled by the Association of  Polish Consumers, and in local branches of the Polish Consumer Federation.

Furthermore, the Energy Regulatory Office established the information point for recipients of fuel and energy, which provides assistance in consumer disputes with energy companies as regards failure to perform or improper performance of a contract.  

Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Phone: +48 22 827 28 92, 55 60 314
Fax: +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]

UOKiK Branch Office in Katowice
Phone: +48 32 256 46 96
E-mail: [SCODE]a2F0b3dpY2VAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]