• The car park next to the oncology hospital in Wrocław. Information banners indicate that the customers of the pharmacy can park their vehicles free of charge for up to 20 minutes. A catch? There is an extra condition for free parking included in the regulations which cannot be read directly from the car. Didn't you collect a ticket from the car wash nearby? PLN 200 penalty.
• The person in charge of the car park, Łukasz Zbróg, implemented practices that mislead the consumers - states in his decision Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

UOKiK has received complaints with regards to the operation of the car park in Wrocław, managed by the entrepreneur Łukasz Zbróg. The parking spaces are located at pl. Hirszfelda 14 in Wrocław, in the immediate vicinity of the Lower Silesian Oncology Center and are found along a road. According to the information banners, the customers of the pharmacy located opposite the car park can use the parking space free of charge for up to 20 minutes. There is no parking meter installed at the car park and there is no car park attendant. At the same time, in the regulations displayed on the boards placed further away from the car park, which cannot be read directly from the car, in small print, there is an extra condition specified - free use of the car park is possible upon collecting a ticket from an employee of a nearby car wash. According to the received complaints, it appeared that there was an additional fee to be paid (PLN 200) if the consumer did not fulfil the above-mentioned condition (of which he/she was usually unaware) and did not collect the ticket. Since 2018, the entrepreneur regularly asks the consumers to pay the aforementioned fee.

Some excerpts from the complaints:

• “(...) I would like to mention that there is a large billboard on which there is information that the car park is free of charge for customers of the pharmacy for up to 20 minutes, however, there is no information that the parking ticket must collected at the car wash. The lack of information on the billboard about the necessity to collect the ticket is deliberate, to misleads the customers, and instead of collecting a fee for using the car park, the owner demands the customers to pay high amounts, by sending notices of payment, to generate unjustified income for the company. "
• "The complaint has not been accepted - the payment has been made. Our doubts, however, are raised by the marking on the car park, which clearly misleads the drivers. There is a large banner in front of the pharmacy according to which parking is free of charge for pharmacy customers for up to 20 minutes. A road sign indicating a car park has been placed in front of the entrance to the pharmacy - under the letter P, there is no note that this is a paid car park."
•  „(…) On every private car park, there is a parking attendant who manages the place and collects fees when you park your vehicle. There is no such a person on that car park, not to mention a parking meter. In my opinion, this is a deliberate action to extort money, especially since there are several facilities in that area that have a lot of patients and there are no parking spaces."

The functioning of the car park has raised doubts of the President of UOKiK, who has contacted Łukasz Zbróg twice to deal with the irregularities with regards to the marking on the car park. The case was also publicised by the media such as "Gazeta Wrocławska" and "Fakt". Calls for clearer marking of the space have not met with a positive response from the entrepreneur. The entity has not introduced any changes - neither into the marking of the car park nor with regards to the provision of proper service in that area.

In the period from 2018 to 2021, consumers regularly submitted complaints to the entrepreneur and questioned the aforementioned  extra fee. The President of UOKiK has found out that some of the complaints have been taken into account by the entrepreneur, however, the entity has dealt with the cases in an unclear manner. - There was no fair and honest approach to the consumers who submitted the complaints and were able to prove that they had purchased goods at the pharmacy. In such a case, the entrepreneur should have let the consumers submit explanations and should have taken the complaints into consideration - explains Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

The President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, stated that Łukasz Zbróg used unfair market practices deliberately, misled consumers and violated their collective interests. A financial penalty of more than PLN 50 000 was imposed on the entity and an obligation to publish information about the decision in the local press. Once the decision becomes final and valid, the consumers will be able to bring claims against Łukasz Zbróg under the Unfair Commercial Practices Act, quoting the decision of the President of UOKiK.

-I have been observing the practices of parking fraudsters for many months now, and I am particularly concerned about parking spaces near hospitals and clinics. They should be clearly marked to avoid confusion. The number of vehicles parked in such specific places is high and a significant proportion of drivers who decide to use the car park has never used the space before. Persons who visit such facilities are concerned about their health condition or the health condition of their relatives, they are often in a hurry, it is unethical to prey on them and set parking "traps" - says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

The decision is not final and may be appealed to the court. Download the content of the decision.

Those are not the only actions of the President of UOKiK with regards to car parks - the President has recently issued a decision on the areas managed by TD System located near Aldi and Biedronka stores. For violation of collective interests of consumers, the President of UOKiK may impose a penalty of up to 10 percent of the turnover of the company.

Consumer assistance:

Telephone number 801 440 220 or 22 290 89 16 – consumer hotline
E-mail: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE]
Consumer Ombudsmen – in your town or county
Trade Inspection – in your voivodeship

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL