J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 9/2001 – The Antimonopoly Court’s first ruling on abusive clauses

The national telecom operator, TP S.A., was fined by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) for blocking international, automatic “party line” connections, which have thus become available only through operators. The OCCP found that this restriction results in higher charges for connections and has a discouraging effect for clients. The amount of the fine is approximately EURO 300,000.

A much higher fine, close to EURO 16,000,000, was imposed on TP S.A. by the President of the OCCP as sanction for an introduction of unbalanced differences between prices charged for interzone connections, prices for local connections, and the amounts of monthly fixed fees. According to the OCCP, the introduction of a new pricing system violated the previously issued binding decisions of the OCCP, prohibiting TP S.A. to derive benefits from unjust pricing structures. The fine for TP S.A. is the highest ever imposed by the OCCP.

The Antimonopoly Court ruled as anticompetitive the requirements of power suppliers imposed on their clients to install only one specific type of lockers for power consumption meters. According to the Antimonopoly Court, this restriction would lead to a discrimination of producers of other types of lockers and has no justification under the applicable safety standards.

The Antimonopoly Court decided the first case pertaining to so-called abusive clauses applied in contracts with consumers. An exemplary list of such clauses was first introduced in 2000, together with the amendments of the Civil Code. The list contains clauses which limit the producer’s or seller’s contractual liability and restrict various consumers’ rights, including the right to terminate a contract. In the matter decided by the Antimonopoly Court, the mobile handset seller excluded the warranty for physical and legal defects of the handsets, which restriction was declared illegal. A register of abusive clauses is maintained by the President of the OCCP.

The new antimonopoly law, published in the Journal of Laws of December 31, 2000 (see overview published in WuW of September 2000), has entered into force as of April 1, 2001.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 9/2001.