Poland’s Competition Authority conducted antimonopoly proceedings concerning competition-restricting practices in southern Poland by electricity-selling Tauron Sprzedaż and Tauron Sprzedaż GZE, companies that belong to the TAURON Group. The Authority found that the two companies may have abused their dominant position on the energy market. Both committed themselves to change the practices in question.

The Competition Authority’s investigation of practices by Tauron Sprzedaż and Tauron Sprzedaż GZE, which followed a notification from Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office, found that the two companies may have abused their dominant position on the energy market.

Poland’s energy law stipulates that when a supplier is unable to deliver electricity, as was the case in 2013 in southern Poland, reserve sales are triggered by other energy companies – in this case Tauron Sprzedaż and Tauron Sprzedaż GZE.

Both companies stepped in when the main supplier was unable to deliver electricity to its power consumers and - to their surprise - summoned them to provide significant collateral at a very short notice in exchange for the supplies. Without the collateral they would have been unable to buy electricity.

The Authority’s investigation found that conditions required of the recipients of power by the reserve energy companies from the TAURON Group were overly rigorous and excessive (the demanded collateral was the equivalent of up to 2.5 times of the predicted monthly electricity usage, paid up front, at a few days’ notice). The companies also reserved for themselves a far-reaching, one-sided right to terminate the agreement even if the power consumer paid for the supplied electricity on time but was, according to the investigated companies, under the threat of bankruptcy.

Tauron Sprzedaż and Tauron Sprzedaż GZE acknowledged the objections and committed themselves to change the practices in question, for instance, to lower the required collateral to a one-month equivalent of the predicted electricity usage.

The Authority’s decisions are not legally binding. The companies have the right to appeal in a court of law.

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