J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 3/2003 – Amendment to the Law on the Protection of Competition and Consumers

The amendments to the Law on the Protection of Competition and Consumers took effect introducing a new form of prohibited practices infringing the collective interests of consumers. The prohibited practices include the use of so-called abusive clauses (a record of which is maintained by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, the “OCCP”), the negligence to provide consumers with true and reliable information, unfair or misleading advertising and other acts of unfair competition. The new anti-consumer practices will be prosecuted by the President of the OCCP in accordance with the same procedures as those appliable in the case of “regular” anticompetitive practices. Upon entry into force of this amendment, the Antimonopoly Court has been renamed to the Court for Protection of Competition and Consumers. The Council of Ministers issued four block exemption regulations which constitute secondary legislation to the Law on the Protection of Competition and Consumers. The following areas are covered by the block exemptions: vertical agreements, specialization and research-and-development agreements, insurance agreements and technology transfer agreements. All newly introduced block exemptions closely follow their equivalents in the European Union. The President of the OCCP publicized its decision to issue another block exemption regulation on the motor vehicle sector which is not planned to enter into force before 2004.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 3/2003.