News

On October 4, 2015 “Rzeczpospolita” has published an interview with Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz, containing his memories and thoughts related to his student years and professional activity. In the interview, Prof. Markiewicz goes back to those early years and talks about his professional life, including the origins of his career at the Intellectual Property Law Institute and the current work at Markiewicz & Sroczyński law firm. See the interview: http://www4.rp.pl/Rzecz-o-prawie/310049998-Ryszard-Markiewicz-Od-wykladow-wolalem-brydza.html

An article by Piotr Suski entitled  “Act on Consumer Rights and the electricity market” was published in a new edition of the periodical “The Internet Antimonopoly and Regulatory Quartely” (iKAR 3(4)/2015). Piotr Suski presented new Polish provisions on consumer rights from the perspective of energy enterprises involved in the sale or distribution of electricity. The analysis includes such issues as: the scope of the application of the Act on Consumer Rights, information duties, specific rules on concluding contracts by phone as well as consumers’ right to withdrawal. Particular attention was paid to those provisions of the Act on Consumer Rights which cause significant doubts in the context of the relationship between energy law and consumer law or due to the conditions prevailing in the Polish electricity market. The article is available in Polish at: http://ikar.wz.uw.edu.pl/numery/26/pdf/37.pdf

On June 25, 2015, Piotr Suski conducted an all-day training on “Abuse of dominant position by energy companies”, organized in Warsaw by For Energy Consulting and onPRomotion Public Relations. During the training Mr. Suski presented i.a. powers of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection related to detection and prosecution of abuse of dominant position, rules for determining the relevant market and dominant position as well as the most common abuses challenged by the OCCP in energy markets. The training was attended by representatives of the companies active in the gas market, electricity market, electricity and gas customers.

On May 14, 2015 MM Conferences organized in Warsaw a workshop on the functioning of consumer law in the banking sector. During this event, Mr. Sroczyński delivered a lecture entitled „Preventing the violations of collective consumer interests by the President of the OCCP in the banking sector”. In his presentation, J. Sroczyński discussed the most important means available to the President of the OCCP to protect consumers on the banking and financial markets, pointed out to practices affecting the collective consumer interests and provided examples of decisions issued by the President of the OCCP in this sector.

On April 28-29, 2015, at the workshop “Appeals from decisions of the President of Energy Regulatory Office” organized by MM Conferences in Warsaw, Piotr Suski delivered a lecture on “Standard of judicial review of sanctions imposed by the President of Energy Regulatory Office“. The presentation was devoted to an analysis of court judgments in appeal cases from decisions of the President of the ERO (and other regulators) imposing penalties on entrepreneurs. Mr. Suski discussed how courts apply procedural and substantive guarantees similar to those applicable in criminal matters. The aim of lecture was to present guarantees that should be taken into account by the regulator when imposing penalties for violations of the energy law as well as to be invoked by entrepreneurs in appeals from such penalties.

On April 22, 2015 the European Commission has presented the statement of objections to Gazprom, alleging an abuse of the dominant market position. The Commission has found, inter alia, that the Russian incumbent charged exorbitantly high prices for gas.

In his comment for Global Competition Review, Mr. Sroczyński remarked that this new case may become important for Poland, mainly due to its possible influence on the prices of gas. The Gazprom case may also have a positive impact on the opening of the Polish market to increasing competition and enhance the security of Polish entrepreneurs operating on the united European markets. See: 

On April 16, 2015 an interview with Mr. Jarosław Sroczyński was published in „Rzeczpospolita” regarding a possible record amount of fine for Google, which can be imposed in result of the recently initiated antitrust proceeding of the European Commission. The Commission has found that Google is abusing its dominant position on the market of comparison shopping services. In his comments for „Rzeczpospolita”, J. Sroczyński pointed out to the possible fine for Google which may amount to several billion euro and which would be an absolute record. See: