Slightly more than 3% of petrol stations, visited by the Trade Inspection in 2009, sold petrol and diesel fuel non-compliant with quality requirements. A year before, the figure stood at 4.2%. As for LPG, irregularities concerned only 0.78% of the inspected stations, compared to 5.81% in 2008.

Since 2007, inspectors of the Trade Inspection have been monitoring all types of fuel available on the market: diesel fuel, petrol, LPG, biofuels and light heating oil. The Act on fuel quality monitoring and scrutinizing system has been in force for 3 years, enabling monitoring activities at each stage of the distribution – starting from a fuel producer, fuel bases, wholesale outlets, entities engaged in fuel transportation to petrol stations.

The report on inspections carried out in 2009 demonstrated an increase in the quality of liquid fuels at petrol stations - 3.08% of the scrutinized samples did not meet the requirements (compared to 4.2% last year). As regards diesel fuel, 3.75% was non-compliant with the requirements (4.23% in 2008), compared with petrol – 2.58% (4.18% the year before).

LPG quality inspection carried out in 2009 revealed irregularities in 0.78% of the stations inspected (5.81% in the previous year). Non-compliance with the quality requirements has been noted in the following voivodships: Lubuskie – 6,25% of inspected petrol stations, Łódzkie – 2.38%, Lubelskie – 2.27%, Śląskie – 2.04% and Mazowieckie – 1.12%.

The Trade Inspection has also controlled the quality of liquid biofuels available in the market. The inspection carried out in 9 voivodships has revealed irregularities in 6 fuel samples, which constitutes 33.3% of tested samples. Altogether, 9 petrol stations and 9 wholesale outlets have been inspected.

The Trade Inspection also controlled the petrol stations indicated by customers, law enforcement authorities and those where irregularities were identified in the previous years. Out of 1 394 samples of diesel fuel and petrol from 774 petrol stations, 68 were questioned, which regarded 48 samples of diesel fuel (6.65%) and 20 samples of petrol (2.98%). The greatest number of irregularities occured at the stations where fuel quality had also been questioned in the previous years – i.e. 13.2%. (in 2008 it was 20%). Non-compliance with quality requirements was not noted in Podlaskie voivodship. A small percentage of irregularities was also noted in Wielkopolskie (1.25%), Dolnośląskie (1.88%) and Mazowieckie (1.99%) with the largest number of irregularities in Opolskie (16.67%) and Lubuskie (10%) voivodships.

35 samples were taken in wholesale outlets. Inspectors of the Trade Inspection questioned 4.44% of diesel fuel samples (no reservations were voiced in 2008) and the quality parameters of petrol were adequate (2.96% in 2008).

Additionally, the TI’s inspectors scrutinized 10 samples of light fuel oil from 10 undertakings and the tests performed concerned the content of sulphur – all the samples proved to be compliant with the quality requirements. Seven voivodships were covered by the inspection.

As a result of the inspections carried out in 2009, the Trade Inspection lodged 90 notifications on suspected committment of a crime. So far, proceedings have been instituted in 64 cases: 7 bills of indictment have been issued, in 37 cases, proceedings have been discontinued, i.a. due to failure to find the offender or lack of features of a crime, or due to minor social harm of the act; 17 proceedings are still ongoing. The existing regulations set forth severe sanctions for selling poor quality fuel - a fine of up to PLN 1 million or imprisonment for the period of 3 months to 5 years.

In addition, the Trade Inspection issued 16 decisions ordering all non-compliant liquid fuels to be recalled and provided the President of the Energy Regulatory Office with information concerning 76 petrol stations and wholesale outlets which infringed the terms of liquid fuel licenses and the regulations of the Energy Law Act, including 21 stations where inspections had been carried out in 2008. The President of the Energy Regulatory Office has the power to prohibit undertakings infringing the terms of their licenses from selling fuel.

Updated lists of entities inspected by the Trade Inspection are available on the website of UOKiK.

Additional information the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
Phone: (+48 22) 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 430
faks (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]