A telephone operator is not a parking lot. Polkomtel lost in three consecutive courts
Polkomtel, the owner of the Plus network, argued that it did not have to refund customers for unused services. He mentioned the example of a parking lot whose operator does not refund money to drivers who paid for an hour's parking and left after 50 minutes. However, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and three subsequent courts, including the Supreme Court, found otherwise.
In January 2020, the president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed a fine on Polkomtel, the Plus network operator, for returning unused funds to prepaid customers. The regulator raised concerns about the practice of allowing the user of the so-called With a flexible pre-paid tariff, after topping up for PLN 50, you can make calls for 90 days. If he doesn't use the full amount and reload the card, the remaining money will be forfeited unless he files a complaint. However, then the money will not be transferred to the bank account, but to the customer's Plus account – reports Wirtualne Media.
Polkomtel fined by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. The case went to the Supreme Court
This solution was harmful to customers who canceled Plus services and transferred their number to another network – the points saved in the account were lost.
The President of the Office, Tomasz Chróstny, ordered Polkomtel to end such practices, pay a fine of PLN 20.43 million and publish his decision on its website. Plus disagreed with the decision. In a statement addressed to the media, he argued that the questioned actions were not inconsistent with the regulations in force in Poland.
“Currently, there are no regulations that would distinguish telecommunications services from other prepaid services widely used in the Polish economy (vouchers, coupons, parking fees – e.g. we buy a parking fee in advance for 60 minutes and if we park for only 50 minutes, we are not entitled to us a refund for the remaining 10 minutes, etc.),” we read in the message.
The case went to court and ultimately ended in the Supreme Court, which found that the mobile operator is subject to regulations other than parking. Therefore, Polkomtel must pay the awarded fine.
