Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the UOKiK) is currently conducting five proceedings concerning communes and parishes as it continues to ensure the funeral services market is competitive. The Office has prepared guidelines to be sent out to cemetery administrators which explain how not to breach the law

One of the UOKiK’s central functions is to detect and eliminate competition-restricting practices. The Office can intervene on a number of markets, including funeral services. Since 2000, the Office has issued more than 100 decisions on this industry and is currently conducting five proceedings. 

The differences between cemetery and funeral services

The UOKiK oversees the funeral services market, which encompasses grave-digging services, transport and burial, as well as the making of gravestones. The cemetery services market, however, which is related to the maintenance and administration of cemeteries, is not open to competition. Cemetery services include maintenance work, infrastructure development and administrative tasks such as bookkeeping. These activities may be performed by the cemetery administration or may be commissioned to another business.

In the case of funeral services, customers should have access to the widest possible range of companies. Sometimes, however, cemetery administrators abuse their position on the market and do not allow other businesses to operate on the premises or obstruct access to a burial site. Another prohibited activity is favouring certain funeral services companies, for example by granting them exclusive rights to dig graves.

Consequences of prohibited practices

 “Due to competition-restricting practices, people who use funeral services have no opportunity to choose a better offer. The administrator or company it has selected has no incentive to raise the quality of services and reduce prices,” says UOKiK Vice-President Bernadeta Kasztelan-Świetlik. Extreme cases of funeral services monopoly can be seen in Spain. Until the 1990s, only one company had been authorised to operate in Madrid’s municipal cemeteries. Abusing its position, the company sold cemetery plots only to those who bought a package of its services, which included a funeral reception.

Municipal and denominational cemeteries

The UOKiK is authorised to intervene if it detects a violation of the law in either municipal or denominational cemeteries. The Office’s decisions are mainly related to communes and their municipal companies, but have also been applied to parishes. In accordance with the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection, parishes have enterprise status since they have a legal character and offer public utility services (by administering cemeteries). Both concordat and canonical law require Church institutions to observe anti-monopoly law.

Operating in accordance with the law

The Office’s activities on the funeral services market are intended to restore competition and to not impose fines. A cemetery services provider can therefore change its practices even after a proceeding against it has commenced. The main objective of a proceeding is to prevent a company from discriminating against other businesses and to enable them to offer their services under the same conditions. To that end, the UOKiK can issue what is known as a commitment decision, which allows the enterprise at fault to avoid a fine while swiftly eliminating a prohibited practice.

The guide

The Office’s experience shows that a number of violations of the law by cemetery administrators are due to ignorance of Poland’s anti-monopoly law. The UOKiK has therefore prepared a special guide to help them become better informed. It includes a description of the cemetery and funeral services market, examples of prohibited practices based on the Office’s and courts’ case law, as well as advice on how to act in accordance with the law. The publication is to be sent out to cemetery administrators, primarily to communes and parishes.

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Spokesperson Małgorzata Cieloch
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw
Tel.: 22 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 314
Fax: 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]