J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 9/2003 – Supreme Court ruling on television programme packages

The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection has ruled that the use of electricity by the customer in breach of the supply contract and in violation of certain technical conditions applicable to such use, results in the admissibility of power cut-off by the supplier, otherwise prohibited as an abuse of dominance.

The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection has confirmed in its judgment that the goal of the antimonopoly legislation is the protection of public interest and not the protection of individual entrepreneurs, who can enforce their rights through civil claims.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the arrangement of program offers by cable television operators in a manner which finally forces the subscribers to choose a more expensive offer, constitutes prohibited abuse of the dominant market position. In this case, an operator eliminated a “midi” package of television programs, which resulted in numerous complaints of subscribers whose alternative was then only to choose between a very limited “mini” package and a much more expensive “maxi” package. At the same time, the Supreme Court has defined the relevant product market narrowly, as the market for cable television, and not the market for pay-TV (including also satellite television).

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (“OCCP”) has issued a prohibiting decision to the State Bus Company, a provider of general transportation services. The President of the OCCP has established that it is illegal to enable access to the timetables of the State Bus Company exclusively through a 0-700 telephone number. This practice resulted in the telephone connections being significantly more expensive, as compared to calls through regular telephone lines, which were made unavailable to passengers.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 9/2003.