Mail delivered by the Polish Post was delayed, determined UOKiK and ordered the operator to change its practices and pay a fine of nearly PLN 7 million. Aster, Dialog and Tele2, which infringed the rights of telecoms services recipients, will also have to change their conduct. They will pay over PLN 7 million in total

Signing a contract for telecommunication services, consumers receive a document confirming their rights and at the same time informing them about the obligations of both parties. When a letter, parcel, or postcard is posted - on spite of the lack of a formal document - a contract is concluded as well, based on which the postal operator undertakes to deliver the consignment on specified terms. Unfortunately, as the practice shows, both in the former and the latter case, consumer rights are often infringed and the obligations of service providers often reduced.

In July last year - due to unsatisfactory results of a report from the Office of Electronic Communications concerning the quality of universal postal services in Poland - UOKiK instituted proceedings against the Polish Post. The Office had also reservations regarding the Polish Post’s failure to respect the terms for delivering letters and parcels.

Being a public operator, the Polish Post is statutorily obliged to provide the so-called universal postal services, including accepting and delivering letters of the maximum weight of 2,000 grams, parcels of the maximum weight of 10,000 grams and operating postal orders. Regulations currently in force determine what percentage of letters and parcels must minimally be delivered by the Polish Post to their addressees within a specified period - for instance at least 80% of priority parcels must reach their addressees already on the next day after their posting.

Based on the information it possessed, the Office determined that in 2007 the Post did not respect the minimum punctuality indicators set out by the law as regards: priority letters delivered on the next day after their posting, all regular letters, and regular and priority parcels. The President of UOKiK found that consumers could have suffered inconvenience due to the consignments not being delivered within the specified period. The Polish Post must change the practice in question; the company was also fined with PLN 6.6 million.

What is more, the President of UOKiK has recently issued four decisions against telecommunications operators. They are the outcome of a survey of rules and regulations, contracts and price lists applied by the alternative telecoms operators - presented in December last year. The Office determined that Toya, Aster, Dialog and Tele2 applied contract terms which were disadvantageous for consumers and infringing the law. The Office ordered all the companies to change the practices in question and imposed on the latter three a total fine of PLN 7 million.

In UOKiK’s view, reserving itself in the contract the right to collect charges for reactivation services or restoring them to full scope following a deactivation due to defaults on bills is particularly burdensome for consumers in financial terms. For instance, Dialog collected a single charge of PLN 61 for the aforementioned activities, whereas Toya’s customers incurred PLN 35. In the Office’s assessment, it is unlawful to punish consumers twice for the same fault - settling an overdue bill you already bear the consequences of the delay in the form of penalty interests. Burdening consumers with additional sanctions is not justified by the regulations in force.

It is also against the law to require that a consumer pay a bill although he/she has not received it, which was what Aster did. In practice, due to varied tariffs for telephone calls, it is difficult to foresee the amount due and hence pay it without having received the invoice. The Office has also challenged a clause limiting the operator’s liability for failing to duly execute the contract. In its rules and regulations, Aster set out that consumers had the right to compensation for a break in providing the service if the break lasted longer than 48 hours of the moment when the fault was reported. In UOKiK’s opinion, the amount due should be reduced by the sum corresponding to the entire break, regardless of its duration.

At the same time, the President of UOKiK established that Tele2 infringed the telecommunication law by requiring that customers return the allegedly granted discount in the event of terminating a one-year contract before the end of its validity period. The company collected an additional, unlawful charge from subscribers who withdrew from the contract, explaining that the sum corresponded to the benefits gained by the consumers due to the discount granted. According to the telecommunication law, if a consumer withdraws from a fixed term contract, he/she can be required to return the discounts and reductions granted at the moment when the contract was concluded. These, however, do not comprise free minute packages included in the subscription - as it was the case with Tele2.

The contract terms challenged by the Office, except for those applied by Tele2, are identical with those already entered in the Register of Prohibited Clauses and their application is unlawful. The President of UOKiK fined the companies for infringing collective consumer interests. Dialog will have to pay a fine of over PLN 1.8 million, Aster nearly PLN 1.6 million, whereas Tele2 almost PLN 4 million. Toya was not punished as, in the course of the proceedings, it voluntarily had agreed to remove the clauses challenged by the Office from its rules and regulations and to notify consumers of that fact.

Aster, Dialog and Tele2 have to have the decision of the President of UOKiK published on their websites for six months. Moreover, they have to place an advertisement stating the conclusion of the decision twice in a Polish daily. In the case of Tele2 this obligation was made immediately enforceable.

The decisions are not final. The companies have the right to appeal to the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The President of UOKiK would like to remind all interested parties that the Office does not settle disputes between customers and businesses, nor does it handle complaints concerning unduly executed contracts. As regards postal and telecommunications services consumers can obtain help at the Office of Electronic Communications, which deals with settling consumer disputes with businesses by means of mediation, as well as at the court of arbitration operating by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications. In the case of a dispute with a business or uncertainty connected with signing a contract consumers can also obtain help from local consumer ombudsmen or non-governmental organisations co-funded by UOKiK - the Polish Consumer Federation and the Association of Polish Consumers. Free advice can also be obtained by calling a free hotline at 0 800 800 008. Also, a manual prepared by UOKiK and available at www.uokik.gov.pl provides information on the rights of consumers using different services.

Additional 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]

UOKiK Branch Office in Warsaw
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
Tel. (+48 22) 826 89 54
faks (+48 22) 827 67 41
E-mail: [SCODE]d2Fyc3phd2FAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]