This is how telecoms rip us off. A quarter of a billion zlotys in fines for abuse [LIST]

In the years 2020-2024, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed 20 fines on 17 telecommunications companies. Consultants trick customers into additional data packages or paid antivirus programs. The victims of abuse are often older people, who in complaints to the office admit that they simply trusted the service.

• The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed PLN 225 million in fines on telecommunications companies between 2020 and 2024. These were practices that violated consumer rights, such as illegal contract clauses.
• The victims are elderly people – telecoms took advantage of the gullibility of seniors, using difficult language and unfair sales techniques.
• The Polish Economic Network believes that even if the abuses against individual customers were minor, they lead to pathology on a market-wide scale.

In the years 2020-2024, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection issued 50 decisions against telecommunications companies. 20 of them resulted in serious fines. They amounted to PLN 225 million in total, analysts from the Polish Economic Network (PLSE) determined based on documents obtained from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection .

17 companies were subject to sanctions. The highest penalties were given to:

• Vectra S.A. – PLN 68,457,916,
• CANAL+ Polska S.A. – PLN 46,557,853,
• T-Mobile Polska S.A. – PLN 25,623,957,
• Vectra S.A. – PLN 22,231,676,
• Polkomtel Sp. z o. o. – PLN 20,433,226,
• UPC Polska Sp. z o. o. – PLN 12,585,082,
• Telewizja Polsat Sp. z o. o. and Teleaudio Dwa Sp. z o. o. – PLN 9,946,187,
• Telestrada SA – PLN 8,414,408,
• TeleGo Sp. z o. o. – PLN 7,906,554,
• Netia SA – PLN 500,000 (twice).

Eight decisions issued by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection concerned the collection of payments without the express consent of the customer (a total of 31 people were wronged). An example? In one of the cases analyzed by PLSE, a telecommunications service provider activated additional services without the express, informed consent of consumers. This included additionally paid antivirus software.

Another group of decisions were those concerning prohibited contractual provisions – these are clauses that have not been individually agreed with the consumer and at the same time violate their interests. An example are those provisions that cause automatic extension of fixed-term contracts for another fixed period. The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection found 46 such cases and imposed a total of PLN 111 million in penalties for them.

As a pensioner, I do not read all the provisions of the contract, especially those written in small print. In February 2023, my subscription fee increased [to] PLN 105.10. When I called Vectra, I was informed that this was due to a new clause in the contract, the "inflation clause", and when I asked why the consultant did not inform me about it, I was informed that there was no such obligation, because the provision was in the contract. In addition, I cannot terminate the contract with the company because I will pay a penalty. I was also informed that if inflation falls, my subscription fee will be reduced. In April 2024, I received another inflation increase and my subscription fee increased from PLN 90 (December 2022) to PLN 118.77 - UOKiK quotes one of the aggrieved parties.

The decisions of the UOKiK president also show that telecoms misled consumers . Three of them concerned lies about products, one - that the company maintained that the offer was limited in time, although it was not. In four cases, customers were not informed that they had the right to withdraw from the contract, and in two - about the real amounts of fees.

– Telecom companies use complicated legal language in preparing contracts and during business talks – says Maria Świetlik from the Polish Economic Network. – This method of communication, combined with the emphasis on selling broad packages of digital services, often led to users making decisions that were inconsistent with their real will – she adds.

According to the authors of the report, in 2017 every fourth piece of advice provided by consumer ombudsmen concerned the telecommunications industry (there is no newer data because the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection stopped collecting it).

– These seemingly minor practices, the omission of some information, a few zlotys of additional fee, failure to send a contract, translate into a large impact due to the scale of telecommunications companies' operations, which is why we want to sensitize society to these issues and the importance of institutions such as the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in defending our rights – explains Świetlik.

According to the latest available report of the Office of Electronic Communications , the value of the telecommunications market in 2023 amounted to PLN 43.1 billion and increased by 6% compared to 2022.

"The data presented paints a picture of systematic and repetitive violations that are not incidental in nature, but are part of the business strategies of telecommunications companies," we read in the report. "What is particularly disturbing is that many of these practices deliberately exploit consumer confusion, inattention or lack of specialist knowledge," the report's authors add, arguing that telecommunications companies exploited the inflation crisis to achieve extraordinary profits by introducing price increases under the vague pretexts of "valorization" or "indexation" without any real economic or legal justification.

The PLSE report paints a disturbing picture, in which the victims of fraud are mainly the elderly. The researchers cite a report on the activities of the district and municipal UOKiK spokespersons for 2017. The UOKiK emphasizes in it that: "the unfair practices of entrepreneurs were aimed at exploiting the gullibility and trust of the elderly, who were deceitfully persuaded to change their current telecommunications service provider." The UOKiK decision from 2020 states:

I am convinced that the representative of this company cleverly took advantage of my already very mature age [...], poor hearing, lack of discernment and my unfortunately helplessness.

Michał Herde from the Consumer Federation, which also dealt with the problem, argues that purchasers of services are sometimes misled by service office employees.

- Sometimes, people serving consumers are simply dishonest. Employees at customer service offices can persuade older consumers, for example, to buy high data packages that they do not need - he says. - It works because people simply do not read these very long and complicated contracts, and trust what the consultant tells them - he says.

This is confirmed by customer reports included in UOKiK’s decisions. In one of them, the injured party says:

I am a trusting and honest retiree and until now I was convinced that recorded conversations and assurances over the phone have legal force.

In another article, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection quotes another senior person:

I am visually impaired, I live alone and there was no one to read this contract to me, which was written in small handwriting, I was only informed where to sign.

Michał Herde adds that a certain hope is the obligation introduced in November last year to present the most important provisions to the client in a concise summary of the contract in a "clear and understandable manner". Such requirements were introduced by the new Electronic Communications Law.

As the expert admits, it is too early to assess how the new law has affected the situation of consumers.

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