• The President of UOKiK has issued commitment decisions against mPay and Revolut Bank UAB.
• The questioned practices included the incorrect form of informing about changes in fees in existing agreements or making changes to executed agreements without a modification clause.
• The companies will settle with consumers for increases and make other benefits available to customers.

The President of UOKiK has made probable the use of practices that may violate the collective interests of consumers by mPay, a mobile payment provider, and Revolut Bank UAB (formerly Revolut Payment UAB). Both entrepreneurs failed to provide information on a durable medium about proposed changes to the terms of payment service agreements with consumers. Nor did they have adequate modification clauses in their agreements to allow them to be amended. The proceedings ended with the issuance of commitment decisions. Eligible consumers will receive refunds of wrongly charged fees and compensation.

Durable medium

Information about the amendment to the payment service agreement in the form of the Purse Regulations and the introduction of higher fees was made available to customers by mPay in an e-mail that included a link to the website. After clicking on the link, consumers were able to download the agreement after the amendments as a pdf file. In addition, the Company did not properly provide consumers with the list of information required under Article 27 of the Act on Payment Services, as it also only provided it on its website. As the President of UOKiK pointed out, the communication of the above information took place in an incorrect form, as mPay’s website does not constitute a durable medium.

A similar practice was questioned in the case of Revolut Bank UAB, which informed its customers of changes in regulations and new fees via an e-mail with a link to its website. Only from it could consumers download documents in pdf format.

- Relevant issues related to the payment service agreement and any possible amendments to it must be communicated in a form that guarantees the permanence and immutability of the content, as well as direct access to it without time limitations. The idea is to guarantee that the entrepreneur will not interfere with them, and the consumer will be able, if necessary, to invoke his rights – says the President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny.

Meanwhile, the ability to download a document from a website or app - which do not meet the characteristics of a durable medium - does not ensure that it is the same version of the file that was originally posted there. The entrepreneur has the technical ability to modify the wording and content of his website. Between sending an e-mail with a link and downloading the document, the file can be changed or deleted. Therefore, the law requires that consumers be provided with relevant information in a durable medium protected from tampering by the sender. A paper document, a memory card, a flash drive, an e-mail message or an attached file, such as a pdf, can be considered a durable medium. A mere hyperlink redirecting to a website does not meet the requirements of a durable medium if such a website does not meet the characteristics of a durable medium.

Modification clauses

The correct form of delivering information is not enough. In order for an entrepreneur to amend an agreement for an indefinite period of time, it is also necessary to have an appropriate modification clause, which, in accordance with the regulations, will precisely and unambiguously indicate the specific circumstances conditioning such an amendment. As determined by the President of UOKiK, mPay - in a service that does not fall under the provisions of the Act on Payment Services - unilaterally changed the Regulations of the mPay Application without appropriate contractual provisions and charged its customers new or increased fees.

Refund and compensation

In accordance with the commitment decisions of the President of UOKiK, mPay and Revolut Bank UAB will automatically refund to eligible consumers the amounts they overpaid as a result of the increases or the introduction of new charges. Former customers of both companies, as well as inactive users of the mPay App, will also be able to apply for fee refunds. The two companies will also offer eligible consumers temporary facilities as compensation. In the case of mPay - a free monthly subscription plan “GOLD”, and for those using Revolut Bank UAB - a free upgrade to the current plan, and in some cases a credit to the account equivalent to the monthly subscription fee, as well as additional cashback for purchases made. Details of the commitments can be found in the decisions (mPay, Revolut Bank UAB).

Worth remembering

Not sure if you have been provided with information on a durable medium? A durable medium (mostly paper, but also, for example, a memory card, flash drive, pdf file) meets the following three criteria:

• no changes can be made,
• direct accessibility to content in a timely manner (even after termination of the agreement),
• seamless reproduction of the content unchanged.

The definitions of a durable medium derive from EU and domestic regulations, including Directive 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2) and the Act on payment services (Journal of Laws 2024, item 30, as amended), which implements the directive.