• President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, has imposed a fine of over PLN 25 million on T-Mobile Polska.
• Advertisements of the mobile phone operator including the slogan “1200 GB for free for a year” were misleading for consumers.
• To take advantage of the offer, consumers had to recharge their pre-pad cards with minimum PLN 35 per month.

President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, issued a decision pertaining to the T-Mobile Polska telecommunications operator. Doubts were raised by the advertisements of the pre-paid offer “1200 GB for free for a year”. They appeared in places such as bill-boards, city-lights at municipal transport stops, they were displayed in ATMs and in POS – both in Polish and Ukrainian. The investigation has been instigated as a result of a consumer’s complaint. We have analysed advertisements and regulations of the promotion.

Following the UOKiK’s findings, the T-Mobile Polska operator mislead consumers as the advertisements suggested that the data package was available for free. In fact, instead of the promised package consisting of 1200 GB, consumer received 100 GB per month provided, however, that they had recharged their pre-paids with at least PLN 35 per month. After a year, the amount to be recharged to their cards would amount to PLN 420. This information, though, was printed in a tiny font at the very bottom of the advertisement.

– Advertising slogans are to attract consumer’s attention so that they are well-remembered and so that they encourage them to buy the services advertised. The advertising message must be short, concise and clear in principle. This rule, though, does not authorise entrepreneurs to use false advertisements. Consumers have a right to expect that the offer presented is true and does not contain any “tricks”. The actual mechanism of the T-Mobile Polska promotion was based on a “installment” system where for 12 months consumers were given 100 GB per month provided that they had recharged their cards with at least PLN 35 – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

For the violation of collective consumer interests, President of UOKiK imposed a fine in the amount of over PLN 25 million (PLN 25,623,957). The information about the decision of President of UOKiK will be published at the T-Mobile Polska website and will appear in social media at the operator’s profiles. It will be available in two language versions: Polish and Ukrainian as the Ukrainian-speaking consumers have also been misled. The decision is not final – the operator may decide to appeal to a court of law.