Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, and Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, President of UOKiK, discussed the system of consumer protection in Poland.

The aim of Commissioner Kuneva’s visit to Poland was to promote the idea of including consumer issues into other areas of EU policy, such as financial services, transport or energy. It is also one of the main priorities of the EU Consumer Policy Strategy 2007-2013. An important element of Meglena Kuneva’s stay was the meeting with Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

Commissioner Kuneva highly appreciated the actions undertaken by UOKiK as regards educating consumers and protecting their interests. Only in 2008 almost 140 abusive contract terms have been entered to the Register of Prohibited Clauses (at present it includes more than 1400 such terms). Moreover, within the last six months UOKiK initiated almost 800 administrative proceeding (including 393 explanatory ones) and issued almost 100 decisions concerning consumer protection. “The law remains just a piece of paper if it is not implemented and enforced”, said Meglena Kuneva.

Thanks to the broad powers awarded to the President of UOKiK, the Office acts not only to protect consumers’ economic interests, conducting numerous administrative proceedings and educational campaigns, but also looks after their safety, eliminating dangerous products from the market. UOKiK is now able to better fight dishonest traders thanks to new legal provisions which came in force in April 2007 making it possible for the Office to impose financial sanctions on traders who have infringed consumer regulations. The fines may reach up to 10% of their income earned in the preceding year. “I would like to stress that we count on the European Commission’s support in our efforts to give proper significance to consumer issues. Just like Commissioner Kuneva, I see the need of including the interests of the weaker market participants in the process of developing and then implementing a series of government policies”, concluded Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel.

During the meeting the Office presented a project it has been implementing thanks to the European Commission’s support, with as much as 60% of almost EUR 250 thousand in total costs being financed from EU funds. The initiative is aimed at raising the safety of children on playgrounds. UOKiK managed to get other EU member states involved in the project. The participants, apart from Poland, include Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia and Slovenia. The initiative aims on the one hand to boost the cooperation of market surveillance institutions as regards playground equipment safety and on the other hand to increase the awareness of all the entities responsible for the safety of playground devices: the importers, manufacturers, distributors, administrators of playgrounds and housing estates, parents and market surveillance institutions.

Meglena Kuneva comes from Bulgaria, holds a Ph.D. degree in Law and has been performing her function at the European Commission since January 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania entered the European Union. Right before that she was the Minister for European Affairs in Bulgaria.

Further information:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
Tel. (+48 22) 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 430
faks (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWNpZWxvY2hAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]