• President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny brought charges against Telewizja Polsat and Teleaudio Dwa – the company responsible for organizing the New Year’s Eve text to win contest.
• Contrary to the announcements, sending a single text message did not allow the person to compete in the game for any prizes, and the grand finale of the contest did not take place on 31 December 2021.

UOKiK found that the organizers of the New Year’s Eve contest - Telewizja Polsat and Teleaudio Dwa - may have misled consumers about the rules, costs of participation in the contest, its course,
and the prizes that could be won. The charges relate to both the contents of verbal and graphic announcements made during the live broadcast of the New Year’s Eve greatest hits concert, as well as the content of text messages that concerned the course of the contest and were sent to participants during the contest.

Consumers who watched the live-streamed New Year’s Eve concert organized by Telewizja Polsat on 31 December 2021 could participate in the text to win contest “Win PLN 100,000 or a car and additional prizes.” The program hosts assured that “all you need to do is send a text message reading SYLWESTER to 7370”, “tonight you are competing for one of these four elegant cars”, “tonight we will be calling only the winners.” An incentive to send a text message also appeared at the bottom of the screen, along with the note “Reg.txt.str.463”.

Contrary to the announcements, sending a single text message (at the cost of PLN 3.69) did not allow the person to compete in the game for the alleged prizes – it served application purposes only. It was only by responding to two additional paid text messages (for the grand prize and for the postal code) that allowed the person to take part in the next stage of the contest. However, as a matter of fact, on the New Year’s Eve consumers could not win the grand prizes they were promised. They did not receive a message with the final task until 5 January 2022, and then they had to send another (fourth) text message, so they spent a total of PLN 14.76. If a person replied to text messages received on 31 December and 1 January, he or she was able to take part in the contest for the New Year’s Eve prizes and treats, which could not be inferred from the broadcast message. In turn, page number 463 of the Teletext indicated in the communication during the program referred to the entire list of regulations, and it was necessary to take further steps to find relevant provisions.

- Consumers have the right to demand that key information about the rules of the contest, the prizes that can be won at each stage and the participation costs be unambiguous and not misleading. They need to be sure that they can rely on what the hosts are saying to them during the live program as they use this information as a basis to make a decision whether they want to take part in the contest and whether to spend money on it. The same is true of contest-related text messages - their content should be clear and understandable to consumers. If they had known from the start that the game required them to take additional steps and spend more money, they might have opted out – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

If the charges are confirmed, Telewizja Polsat and Teleaudio Dwa may be facing a penalty of up to 10 percent of annual turnover.

Consumer Support:

Phone: 801 440 220 or +48 22 266 76 76 – consumer helpline
E-mail: porady@dlakonsumentow.pl
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