• Travelplanet.pl misled consumers by displaying out-of-date or incomplete trip prices on its website.
• The President of UOKiK has imposed a fine of nearly PLN 650,000 on the company.

You are planning a May Day break or a holiday and searching for offers online. You see an attractive price for a trip, but after clicking through to view the details, the price turns out to be different. For such practices, the President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, has imposed a fine of nearly PLN 650,000 on Travelplanet.pl.

Travelplanet.pl is a travel agent that sells trips organised by tour operators, including via its website. On the travelplanet.pl website, consumers can search for a holiday based on criteria such as destination or price. They can, for example, sort trips from the cheapest to the most expensive, as well as set a specific price range in their search.

The price information displayed in the search results misled consumers, as upon viewing the offer details, the price turned out to be different. For example, over a three-week period during one of the periods examined, out of 100 trips checked, in 47 cases the price shown in the offer details was, on average, PLN 329 per person higher than in the search results. The biggest discrepancy at the time concerned a trip to Dubai and amounted to as much as PLN 4,730. The price per person shown in the search results was PLN 4,293, whereas the trip details listed a price of PLN 9,023.

Furthermore, in some cases, the price did not include mandatory contributions to the Tourist Guarantee Fund. The company changed this practice during the proceedings, and the prices now include these contributions.

Travelplanet.pl’s actions meant that consumers were misled regarding the price of the package holiday. They may have found it difficult to compare offers accurately or even to find trips that actually interested them.

– Price is one of the most important pieces of information that consumers rely on when choosing goods and services. This is also the case with package holidays. Displaying up-to-date and complete prices on websites and in search engines, without requiring consumers to verify them, is one of the basic obligations of an undertaking – says the President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny.

For violation of collective interests of consumers, the President of UOKiK has imposed a fine of PLN 647,000 on Travelplanet.pl and ordered the company to change its practices. The company will also have to publish the decision on its website and social media profiles. The decision is not yet final and may be appealed before a court.

This is not the first decision concerning the publication of incorrect prices for package holidays on websites. In December 2023, the President of UOKiK imposed a fine of over one million zlotys on the owner of the wakacje.pl portal for such practices.