The prize is waiting for you. One SMS is enough. The money will be transferred. Many consumers receive messages of this kind. How many of them won the guaranteed prize? It is not as easy as it seems. At present, the President of the Office carries out eight proceedings concerning SMS lotteries and has already initiated a new one.

A statistical Pole sends 30 text messages and makes 38 calls a week. Record-holders send over 50 text messages a week*. Many of these messages may turn out to be very expensive, especially if they are the first step to enter a competition. Popular actors, speakers and fortune-tellers encourage people to send such messages in TV and radio commercials. However, not all tricks are allowed. At present, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection carries out eight proceedings as regards SMS lotteries, and has just initiated a new one concerning Internetq Poland – the organiser of a contest called Pusty SMS (Blank SMS).

The proceedings stemed from many complaints filed by consumers. The Office has analysed, inter alia, competition regulations, examples of text messages, list of prize-winners and of prizes they received, as well as the content of TV commercials and press advertisements. Persons, who decided to enter a lottery, received various messages – e.g. It’s the end of the world. The decision on awarding PLN 30,000 has just been made. Please send a blank SMS. According to the Office, such messages may suggest awarding the prize to everybody who will send the blank message while, pursuant to the competition regulations, the prize is awarded only to winners drawn by the organiser.  Therefore, UOKIK will verify whether the lottery organiser applied unfair market practice by sending text messages suggesting certainty of winning. It is worth reminding that it is illegal to make an impression that the consumer will unconditionally win a prize, e.g. after sending a text message, making a call or sending a letter, while it is actually performed on other unfavourable conditions.

Not only does the Office carry out proceedings concerning SMS lotteries – unreliable information presented at websites promoting various quizzes is also contested by UOKiK. Answering some questions, one may check their IQ or date of death. In such a case, a text message is a form of receiving quiz results and a form of payment for a service. The cost of the message, often very high, is fixed by the service provider. It must not be misleading, and the consumer should be aware of the final cost of checking their IQ.

Almost hundred complaints on SMS lotteries and websites encouraging to pay via SMS have already been filed to UOKiK. They concern such issues as providing no access to competition regulations or conditioning winning the prize only on sending one text message, while in the end several messages have to be sent. The Office reminds that the consumer needs to be provided with clear, fair and non-misleading information on terms and conditions of the competition – e.g. on the cost of a text message, the amount of the prize. Moreover, the consumer needs to be informed where to find the regulations and familiarize themselves with it. Did you know: organising a competition and not awarding a prize, as well as suggesting that receiving the prize is certain while, for example, only participation in the lottery is guaranteed, is an unfair market practice. Moreover, it is illegal to provide no access to the competition regulations or to keep information on the cost of a text message secret. Always in the case of law violation, UOKiK may initiate proceedings and impose on the undertaking a fine up to 10% of the revenue obtained in the year preceding the decision.

The already instituted proceedings against Internetq Poland is not the only one carried out by UOKiK. The President of the Office conducts two proceedings against FHU Zielińscy in Rudawa – the owner of www.data-smierci.pl website, and One-2-One in Poznań – the organiser of Konkurs telewizyjny (TV competition). Moreover, we carry out six explanatory proceedings to verify whether the text messages informed about the competition regulations or suggested certainty of winning, and whether consumers might have been misled as regards the cost of the message.

At the same time, we inform that each consumer may check the cost of the text message on their own on the basis of its number. How to do this? If the number starts with 7, the cost of the message is equal to the second figure in the number plus VAT. If it starts with 9 – the cost is presented in two following figures – in the case of number 935*** the cost of the message amounts to PLN 35 plus VAT. More information to be found at the website of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE).

On this occasion the Office would like to remind consumers that if they were misled, they can receive support inter alia from the ombudsmen. Free of charge councelling is provided under the telephone line 0 800 800 008. The act on counteracting unfair market practices may also be useful in bringing an action in consumer individual disputes with undertakings. In the course of such proceedings, the court verifies whether the market practice applied by an undertaking is unfair. In such a case the entrepreneur has to provide evidence by the court that the applied market practice is not misleading to consumers.

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

*Research by PBS DGA for UKE “Telecommunications Market in Poland in 2009” (Rynek telekomunikacyjny w Polsce w 2009 roku)