UOKiK has fined Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG), a leading Polish oil and gas company, EUR 2.45 mln for failing to comply with a part of the commitment decision it had accepted in December 2013. The commitment required PGNiG to remove from its contracts provisions preventing customers from reducing the amount of gas they had ordered.

PGNiG is a Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed company in which the Polish state owns a majority stake. In December 2013, Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) issued a decision in which it accepted PGNiG’s commitment to remove questionable provisions from its gas contracts with business purchasers. One key provision objected to by UOKiK restricted customers from reducing the amount of fuel and the contractual capacity ordered for the next gas year. UOKiK’s decision also substantiated the charge that PGNiG had abused its dominant position on the market. 

Under the terms of the commitment, the provisions in question were to be amended by annexes to the original contracts or excised altogether. UOKiK's own monitoring of the commitment as well as feedback from the market, however, indicated that actual implementation of this commitment may be less than complete. In October 2014, UOKiK initiated review proceedings to determine whether PGNiG was duly meeting its obligations. These proceedings established that, while the old contractual provisions had indeed been removed, they had been replaced with new terms which, in practice, yield the same essential results. If customers were to accept PGNiG’s new conditions, they would be locked into purchasing a fixed minimal amount of gas established at a level defined in 2014 orders.

UOKiK fined PGNiG EUR 2.45 mln, breaking down into EUR 5,000 for each of the 490 days over which it delayed implementing its commitments. PGNiG has since announced its intent to appeal the fine before the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.

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