• Inco Group, PKP Cargo, the Swatch Group (Poland).
• These enterprises were subject to court judgements on UOKiK’s decisions in the field of competition protection.

Please find below a short summary of the most important court judgements in competition protection cases.

Inco Group – file no VII AGa 1205/18

The first judgement refers to a decision from November 2011. The Office conducted an inspection combined with a search in the Inco Group. During the inspection, the company’s representative deliberately deleted from his/her computer a file containing data that could have a high evidential value in the proceedings. The President of UOKiK imposed a fine on the enterprise in the amount of over PLN 2 million.

In October 2018, the Court of Appeal dismissed the company’s appeal against judgement of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection (SOKiK) from July 2017. According to the Court of Appeal, deleting a file by an employee was a proof of deliberate lack of cooperation with the Office. The Court emphasized that the file was deleted after the inspection had started, which was indicative of an intentional action. The Court ruled that the fine was commensurate with the act committed.

PKP Cargo – file no XVII AmA 45/16

Another judgement concerns a decision from 2015, when UOKiK discovered abuse of dominant position by PKP Cargo. The company prevented the development of competition on the domestic rail freight market by refusing to sign what is known as special contracts with enterprises being its competitors. Thus, they could not take advantage of preferential price conditions resulting from special contracts that provided for tariff discounts. UOKiK imposed a fine on PKP Cargo in the amount of more than PLN 14 million.

In October 2018, the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection dismissed the enterprise’ appeal. The Court pointed out that the use of the alleged practice was demonstrated by the fact that PKP Cargo posted on its website the disputed terms of selling freight transport services. The position of the company on the market made its contractors accept the terms without the possibility of negotiating them. The terms applied to all contractors, both current and potential ones. The Court found no grounds to reduce the fine imposed on the enterprise.

One of the problems of the case was whether UOKiK could issue a new decision after the previous one had been revoked by the court. In the opinion of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection, common court judgements end court proceedings, but this is not tantamount to ending the antimonopoly proceedings. Revoking the decision of the President of UOKiK forces him to take appropriate actions at the administrative level. The President of the Office may continue the proceedings and issue a new decision or discontinue them.

The Swatch Group (Poland) Ltd. – file no XVII AmA 18/16

In December 2015, the President of UOKiK issued a decision in which he stated that some enterprises made an agreement restricting competition in Polish watch retail industry in the years 2005-2015. These enterprises set minimum commodity prices.

The Office imposed fines on the following enterprises:

• The Swatch Group (Poland) Ltd. from Warsaw – over PLN 1.1 million,
• The Krakow Jewellery Salon W. Strojny from Kraków - over PLN 62 000,
• Firma Handlowo Usługowa ‘Płonka’ from Kraków – over PLN 49 000,
• MAX-TIME from Rzeszów – over PLN 39 000,
• Vistula Group SA from Kraków – PLN 864 000.

The above listed enterprises appealed against the decision. In October 2018, the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection delivered a judgement in which it changed the UOKiK decision. In the grounds to the judgement the Court stated it had no doubt that the parties had made an agreement restricting competition and sustained the fines for three enterprises. It did however decide to reduce the fine imposed on Vistula Group down to over PLN 696 000 and the Kraków Jewellery Salon down to over PLN 41 000.

Appeal procedure

An enterprise may appeal against the decision of the President of UOKiK to the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection. As for the SOKiK judgement, an enterprise may appeal to the Court of Appeals in Warsaw. It is also possible to submit a further appeal
(a cassation appeal) against the Court of Appeals judgement to the Supreme Court.

Judicial decisions database

Since November 2015, the judicial decisions database has been made available on the UOKiK website. It contains information on all final decisions on competition-restricting practices, concentration control, violation of consumers’ collective interests, and decisions issued in proceeding for abusive clauses, in which the President of UOKiK was a claimant. The database is available in the ‘Decisions’ tab on the UOKiK website: http://decyzje.uokik.gov.pl/bp/wyroki.nsf. Detailed terms and conditions governing the placement of judgements can be found in the following document: Principles governing the provision of information on court control over decisions made by the President of UOKiK.

Additional information for the media:

The UOKiK Press Office Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw
Phone: 22 827 28 92, 695 902 088, 22 55 60 345
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