• Customers of former UPC using the “More Benefits for You” package will get a compensation - fee reimbursement for unsolicited services.
• The President of UOKiK has issued a commitment decision concerning the case in question.
• On the other hand, the Canal+ Polska company has had charges pressed on launching for consumers some additional services to which they had not provided their explicit consent.

Launching any services, adding them against a fee to a previously concluded agreement must be performed upon an explicit and informed consent of consumers. Meanwhile, UPC Polska, as part of the program titled: “More Benefits for You” was launching for its customers some additional TV channels and was increasing the Internet speed without asking them for a consent to such actions. Higher subscription fee for new services (by PLN 4 or PLN 8, respectively, depending on a package) was accrued automatically only with a capacity to opt out of the changes introduced unilaterally to indefinite time agreements. For such actions, the President of UOKiK has brought charges against the company and now has issued a commitment decision upon it.

– Consumers did not apply for increasing the subscription fee, did not order new products and did not express their voluntary consent to be bound with a new UPC contract at any stage. Therefore, changes made by the operator should not have taken place at all – says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

What is important is that absence of objection on consumer’s part may not be deemed as tacit consent to the entrepreneur’s actions. It may not demand of its customers that they consent to such material changes that were not agreed with them and which, as a result, should not be in force at all.

UPC Polska, P4 today, will not charge the increased subscription fee arising from the changes challenged. Customers will be able to continue the agreement with higher subscription fee in exchange for an additional number of channels or increased Internet speed but only provided that they have expressed their voluntary consent to it. In addition, the operator will reimburse its all consumers the money for time when they were paying the higher subscription fee as part of the program titled: “More Benefits for You” (up to 9 settlement periods, maximum PLN 72). As part of the compensation, the entrepreneur will additionally offer some preferential terms for mobile Internet.

Details of the commitment have been laid down in the decision of the President of UOKiK which must be communicated by P4 individually to its customers as well as on its website and social media profiles.

Payable additional service? Only upon explicit consent

The President of UOKiK additionally challenges the practices consisting in automatic launch of additional services and charging fees for them with no explicit consent to this from consumers. What is more, holding them responsible for non-resignation of the services launched this way is also doubtful. These are the charges pressed by the President of UOKiK to Canal+ Polska.

When concluding an agreement on access to mobile Internet or mobile phone services, the company customers were not asked if they wanted to activate additional services and they did not expressed such a consent. The only information communicated to them was about launching the anti-virus named “Safe Internet” or the “Music+ Premium” service assuring acces to Tidal service and that they will be able to opt out of one or both options as soon as they conclude the agreement. After the free-of-charge period, the “Safe Internet” and “Music+ Premium” services were payable, and the consumers were the ones to remember to disable them. Otherwise, the subscription fee was increased by PLN 3 or PLN 9 for anti-virus and PLN 19.99 for using the music service.

– We have been appealing for long to entrepreneurs that they should provide their customers with an actual capacity to choose and decide if they want to launch services going beyond the main service and its value. It is the entrepreneur’s responsibility to obtain an explicit consent from consumers to each additional payment for such a service at the time of concluding the agreement at the latest – says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

Such obligation arises from Article 10 of the Act on Consumer Rights. The President of UOKiK has repeatedly indicated the foregoing in his activities toward the tele-communications sector. In recent years, he has issued commitment decisions against the companies Vectra, Cyfrowy Polsat, UPC, Netia, P4 (Play network operator) and Orange Polska.

The Canal+ Polska company faces a fine of up to 10 percent of its turnover.