News

On February 19, 2014 Jarosław Sroczyński and Piotr Suski conducted in Warsaw a special workshop for real property developers. The workshop was organized in connection with the publication by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection of its third report, concerning practices applied by developers which violate consumer laws. Our lawyers discussed numerous examples of violations, including prohibited clauses applied in developers’ contracts concluded with consumers. Moreover, the participants were trained how to protect their companies from financial sanctions applied by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and how to react in the event of falling under the OCCP’s scrutiny.

On February 3, 2014 Piotr Suski presented a lecture on “Contractual penalty in energy sale contracts” for participants of the workshop entitled Expert of practical enforcement of the Energy Law, organized in Warsaw by MM Conferences. The lecture was devoted to the problems arising from application of contractual penalty in energy sale contracts on the grounds of civil law (especially regulations concerning consumers) and competition law. It took into account also decisions of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection as well as the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection related to demanding of contractual penalties from contractors.

Biznes_i_PrawoIn the weekly „Biznes i Prawo” No. 3/2014 an article was published entitled „The shop creates its own rules of returning purchased goods” with a legal comments of Jarosław Sroczyński. The article concerns the so-called “wardrobing” phenomenon, which consists in buying clothing, returning it back to the shop after an occasional wear, and demanding money return. As a result of this procedure, many shops have limited their money return opportunities in order to eliminate this unwanted situation. Mr. Sroczyński reminded in his comment that only the seller decides whether the goods can be returned on the “money-back” basis once they were purchased and are being returned without a good cause. See

A newly published book „The consumer on the energy market” (CH Beck 2013, ed. M. Czarnecka) contains an article by Jarosław Sroczyński, entitled „Benefits for consumers stemming from commitment decisions of the OCCP”. Mr. Sroczyński discussed the issue of so-called „consumer benefits”, understood as the value which consumers receive or save in result of commitment decisions of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. In his article, Mr. Sroczyński analysed the economic outcome of those decisions, based on calculations pertaining to selected Polish cases, against the comparative, international background.

A new edition of the periodical „The Internet Antimonopoly and Regulatory Quarterly” (iKAR 7(2)/2013) contains an article summing up lawyers’ opinions vis-à-vis the planned amendment of the Polish competition law. Jarosław Sroczyński presented his view regarding the planned amendment of Art. 28 which regulates the issue of collective consumer interests. Mr. Sroczyński pointed out to the positive effect of adding a new paragraph 1a to the above-mentioned article. The new provision will provide the President of the OCCP with a legal basis to issue commitment decisions also to undertakings which, for different reasons, have ceased to apply practices harming the collective interests of consumers. Currently, such undertakings cannot apply for commitments and are exposed to fines. The article can be accessed at the internet address:ikar.wz.uw.edu.pl/numery/13/pdf/42.pdf

On October 17, 2013 Piotr Suski delivered a lecture for the participants of the workshop entitled „Consumer law in the energy sector – recent developments and existing problems”, which was held in Warsaw on October 17-18, 2013. The workshop was organized by MM Conferences. Piotr Suski presented a lecture on “Recent legal changes and consumer protection duties of energy companies”. It was devoted to new regulations providing for consumer protection duties, included in the amendment of the Energy Law of July 26, 2013 and the draft Law on Consumer Rights of September 20, 2013. The workshop was directed, in particular, to representatives of undertakings operating in the electricity, heat and gas sectors.

On September 26-27, 2013 an anniversary conference was held at the Fordham University in New York – “40th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy”. This is one of the most important international conferences devoted to global and national issues of competition law, organized annually by the Fordham Competition Law Institute, headed by Professor Barry Hawk. Mr. Sroczyński received an invitation to attend this conference as a speaker, presenting comments related to the current issues of abuse of market dominance. The presentation was made during a discussion panel entitled „Future of Unilateral Conduct Enforcement and Policy”. The panel was presided by Professor William Kovacic, former head of the Federal Trade Commission. Dr. Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Professor Eleanor Fox of the New York University School of Law, and Mr. Eduardo Perez Motta, former head of the Mexican competition authority and Chairman of the International Competition Network (ICN), also participated in this panel. In his conference paper entitled „Dominance, Collectivism and Behaviorism: New Perspectives?”, Mr. Sroczyński concentrated on multi-farious analysis of the collective dominant market position. Presentations and papers of the participants were published in a conference binder and by Spring 2014 they will appear as a book publication.
The conference gathered numerous representatives of competition authorities from throughout the world. Presentations were made inter alia by Mr. Joaquín Almunia, Vicepresident of the European Commission and Competition Commissioner, Mr. Alexander Italianer, head of DG COMP, Mr. Andreas Mundt, head of the Bundekartellamt, Mr. William J. Baer, head of the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Ms. Edith Ramirez, head of the US Federal Trade Commission. Panels were also attended by judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, competition courts from Brasil and the Republic of South Africa, as well as by representatives of the doctrine of law, university professors, and practitioners from leading law firms and economic consultancies.