Numerous consumer complaints about PGT’s misleading practices have led Poland’s consumer protection Authority to issue a new consumer warning. Posing as a company it is not and inducing customers to sign a new contract without providing them with full information are just two of the allegations being levelled against the company.

Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has received upwards of 200 consumer complaints about PGT, a company that provides telecommunications services and operates under the name Telefonia Polska Razem. PGT pitches its services over the phone and in the homes of potential customers. The complaints have come mainly from seniors and their families, who claim the company misled them about its identity and failed to provide them with documents they had signed.

In response, UOKiK in mid February opened a proceeding against PGT and also issued the consumer warning. The Authority publishes such warnings when it has a reasonable suspicion that a company is employing illegal practices that could cause significant financial loss and other harmful effects for a wide range of consumers. The specific misleading practices UOKiK is warning about include the following.

First, the company poses as the telephone service provider with which an individual has an existing agreement. The PGT representative then indicates that signing a document will only cause a change to the existing provisions. By signing the document, however, the customer is actually entering into an entirely new contract and thus changing service providers. The company then keeps all of the documents, leaving the new customers with no record of what has transpired. As a result, customers discover they have changed providers only after receiving their first bill. The majority of the complainants indicated they could not say with whom, when and under what conditions they had concluded the new contract. To make matters worse, those who have sought to cancel their contract faced a cancellation fee of between 500 and 1500 PLN (ca. 115-350 EUR). Such measures could prevent customers from withdrawing from the contract.

Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) is likewise analysing PGT’s practices to determine if they accord with the country’s telecommunication law. PGT services are based on wholesale line rental (WLR) access to the telecommunications network. UKE’s investigation concerns PGT’s charging a fee that compensates it for a discount it has given when customers, including consumers, terminate an agreement before subscription service commences (the provision of WLR services). UKE is also seeking to establish, among other potential violations, whether PGT is contacting end users, including consumers, without their consent, which would infringe Poland’s telecommunications law.

This is the second consumer warning UOKiK has issued. The January 2015 amendment to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act gave the Authority this new tool.

Additional information for the media:

Press Office, UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw
Phone.: +48 22 827 28 92, +48 22 55 60 314, +48 22 55 60 430
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]

Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL