• The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Tomasz Chróstny, initiated proceedings against P4 – the operator of the Play network.
• The charge relates to consumers being punished with the loss of a discount for e-invoice if they fail to pay their subscription or other fees indicated on the bill on time.
• The company is subject to a penalty in the amount of up to 10 percent of its annual turnover.

Play network subscribers who have opted out of paper invoices are entitled to a discount for e-invoice and timely payments. It amounts to PLN 5 per month. According to the terms of promotion, a consumer will lose his right to the discount with the next invoice if he fails to pay for the previous one on time. In addition to the subscription fee, invoices show, among other things, fees for various additional services – failure to pay them on time also means losing the right to the discount. The consumer becomes entitled to the discount again only after he has made all outstanding payments and paid the current e-invoice on time. If he fails to do so, he will once again be deprived of the discount. Regardless of the above, the company may charge late interest to consumers.

- Loss of discount for failure to pay an invoice on time is a type of contractual penalty. Meanwhile, according to the Polish Civil Code, entrepreneurs may reserve such penalties for non-monetary obligations only. That is why I initiated proceedings against P4 – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

In the opinion of the President of UOKiK, such practice may be an infringement of the collective interests of consumers. The operator has reserved the right to impose a double penalty on subscribers who fail to pay on time. First, through late interest. Secondly, by losing the discount, the amount of which may exceed the maximum interest permitted by law in such cases. The company may also enjoy an additional benefit – it still does not bear the costs related to issuing and sending paper invoices, although the subscriber has lost the discount in this regard. If they lose their discount due to late payment, consumers usually do not withdraw their consent to e-invoicing.

If the charge is substantiated, the entrepreneur may be fined up to 10% of its annual turnover.

These are not the only actions taken by the President of UOKiK in this regard. Preliminary investigations are pending for CANAL+, Netia, T-Mobile, and Vectra, as part of which the Office is looking into the terms on which the operators reserve the loss of any discount due to failure to pay an invoice on time.

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