The results of work of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in 2010 include 401 decisions regarding competition and consumer protection, product safety as well as financial penalties exceeding PLN 347 million

The primary instrument of the President of UOKIK in the field of competition protection are antimonopoly proceedings which can be concluded, inter alia, with a prohibition of applying the questioned actions, and imposing financial sanctions. In 2010, the President of UOKiK conducted 507 explanatory proceedings and 143 antimonopoly proceedings out of which 103 concerned the abuse of a market dominant position by undertakings and 40 – unlawful agreements.

In 2010, the President of UOKiK conducted 507 explanatory proceedings and 143 antimonopoly proceedings out of which 103 concerned the abuse of a market dominant position by undertakings and 40 – unlawful agreements

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Report on activities in 2010

Last year, the President of UOKiK issued 96 decisions regarding competition-restricting practices, one of them was a decision related to the unlawful agreement concluded between Tikkurila, Praktiker and Castorama, which fixed retail prices of paints and varnishes provided by Tikkurila. The President of UOKiK withdrew from imposing the fine on Castorama and lowered the penalty for Tikkurila to PLN 9 million, as the companies collaborated with UOKiK within the leniency programme. Praktiker was imposed the sanction amounting to over PLN 39 million.

The President of UOKiK has the power to control the concentration in order to avoid the situation when, as a result of a transaction, a dominant entity emerges in the market. Last year, UOKiK carried out 222 cases concerning mergers and acquisitions of undertakings — nearly 80 more than the year before. Among 150 issued decisions, there were no prohibitions of concentration, however, there were two conditional consents for a takeover and one penalty for failure to notify the intention of concentration. Notifications mostly concerned the trade (21) and financial mediation (18).

State aid monitoring is closely connected with the protection of competition. The President of UOKiK deals, inter alia, with providing opinions on state aid  for undertakings granted by the state under aid schemes as well as individual decisions before they are sent to the European Commission which decides on the compliance of the aid with EU regulations. In 2010, the President of UOKiK issued 86 opinions, including 33 with regard to aid schemes, 43 – individual aid cases, and 10 opinions concerning individual aid for restructuring. Additionally, UOKiK notified 40 drafts, including 31 regarding the individual aid, and 9 – aid schemes.

Last year, UOKiK conducted 272 proceedings with regard to the practices violating the collective consumer interests. As a result, the President issued 221 decisions, including 160 declaring the infringement of collective consumer interests (in 2009 there were 153 such decisions).

In the case of various services, the consumer has no possibility to negotiate the contract content – the consumer’s role is merely either to accept or to reject the contract, hence the danger of imposing the terms which not always are favourable. In 2010, UOKiK continued the inspection of standard forms of agreements applied by undertakings. The subject of inspection were standard forms applied within insurance and credit cards contracts. The inspections resulted in issuing 88 orders to change the inadmissable clauses. 22 lawsuits were filed to the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection to consider the clause unlawful, and 299 provisions were entered into the Register of Prohibited Clauses. The positive aspect is that in 80 cases the undertakings themselves changed the questioned forms.

With the consumer protection in view are also proceedings concerning the cases on general product safety. Here, the President of UOKiK may order, inter alia, to withdraw from the market a product dangerous for its users, as well as impose the financial penalty — up to PLN 100 000. Last year, UOKiK handled 278 cases with regard to the general product safety. In 84 cases, upon completion of the proceedings, the President of UOKIK issued the decisions which committed the undertakings to eliminate the threats and appropriately warn consumers, and, prohibited the distribution of the products in the market or required their withdrawal. 22 financial penalties were imposed on entrepreneurs. In addition to that, UOKiK received 82 voluntary notifications from entrepreneurs that their products did not comply with the safety requirements. Most of them (64) came from automotive industry, the others concerned electric devices and products destined for children.

The safety control for products introduced to the market is also carried out under the procedures existing within the conformity assessment system. Those proceedings concern over 20 groups of products e.g. electric products or toys, labelled with the CE mark, which should meet the requirements specified in applicable Polish regulations based on the EU law. UOKIK conducts proceedings in cooperation with specialized institutions such as the maritime offices or construction supervision authorities as a result of which the President of UOKiK may order e.g. withdrawal of hazardous products from the market. Last year UOKiK dealt with 386 cases concerning the conformity assessment system. The President issued 269 decisions, including 36 ordering the withdrawal of products in question and 160 on discontinuance of proceedings, mostly because of the fact that the entrepreneurs had undertaken actions aiming at eliminating the identified irregularities.

UOKiK is also responsible for managing the surveillance system for the fuel quality. Inspections carried out in 2010 showed that the quality of fuel and diesel oil significantly declined — 3.46 % of selected at random and tested samples did not comply with the requirements (a year before this was 3.08%). In the case of LPG gas, irregularities were discovered in 3.72 % of tested samples, compared to 0.78% last year.

Legislative work was a significant aspect of UOKiK’s activities in 2010. The Office submitted to the Sejm a draft bill on consumer credit. Last year, in total UOKiK provided opinions with regard to nearly 3 thousand legal acts in terms of their consistency with the law of competition and consumer protection.

In 2010, to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of UOKIK, the Office organized a jubilee conference in Warsaw, three regional conferences and four debates, all of them aiming at raising awareness in the field of protection of the market and its participants. Having consumers in mind, in 2010 an interactive guide was created in the form of questions and answers.

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 60 314
faks +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]