• UOKiK is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its establishment.
• To celebrate the occasion, the Office is summing up three and a half decades of its fight to protect competition and consumer rights.
• Over the past five years alone, the President of UOKiK issued in excess of 4,800 decisions. All of them – even the ones protecting competition – finally benefit the consumers.

Online shopping and ability to return goods ordered remotely or at commercial demonstrations. Clear information about discounts offered, ability to verify prices in effect over the period of 30 days prior to a given promotional campaign. The rights and standards most us take for granted today - as if they had been there forever - are the legacy of the past 35 years. This period of time marks also the entire history of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

It all started with the Anti-monopoly Office

After the political breakthrough of 1989, when polish economy based, to a large extent, on state-owned monopolies changed the course and began to rely on free market mechanisms, the issue of promoting competition and preventing anti-market practices became of fundamental importance for the success of the economic transformation. Therefore, under the Act on preventing monopolistic practices, the Anti-monopoly Office was established on 13 April 1990. It was tasked with controlling business concentrations, preventing the conclusion of competition-mitigating agreements and abusing dominant positions of entrepreneurs on the market.

– The 35 years of UOKiK is a period of breakthroughs - not only for the Office itself, but most importantly for the security and position that consumers enjoy in the market economy -  incomparably better now than it used to be 30, 15 or even 5 years ago – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

The first milestone was reached back in 1996, when UOKiK received its current name and the scope of tasks of the authority was expanded to include the protection of consumer interests and exercising supervision over the Trade Inspection Authority. Over the years, UOKiK’s rights continued to expand and covered monitoring public aid (2001), preventing the abuse of superior bargaining power (2017) and counteracting payment backlogs (2020). Changes taking place in the legal environment impacted UOKiK’s activities as well. In 2001, the new Act on competition and consumer protection entered into force. It established a new legal framework for the solutions previously in place, taking into account the need to adjust domestic regulations to EU requirements. The current version of the said Act was enacted in 2007, but underwent an in-depth modification in 2015. Its new wording implemented, inter alia, two-stage proceedings focusing on concentration control, allowed the Office to impose fines on individuals and introduced the notion of “consumer warnings”. A year later, the institution of the so-called “mysterious customer” was introduced, as was the ability to publish announcements and warnings on public radio and television channels. Polish regulations protecting consumers underwent their last significant amendment back in 2023. It was then that the requirement to disclose the lowest price in effect over the period of 30 days preceding a given promotional campaign or sale was introduced.

One could list quite a number of such breakthrough moments in the history of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection that were related to administrative reforms or changes in applicable law. However, the outcomes of activities and decisions of the President of UOKiK proved, in many cases, to be equally consequential.

How the market evolved

The first decision - taken in 1990 by the then Anti-monopoly Office - was related to the pricing practices of a car maker (Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych in Warsaw), as the entrepreneur increased the price of its Fiat 125 model three times over a period of one month. As a result of the efforts of the President of the Office, tariffs for passenger cars were reduced by 70%. Consequently, in the following year, imports exceeded domestic production three times, thus creating market competition, which was beneficial for the consumers. 
Since then, the Office has completed thousands of proceedings and issued as many decisions. Some of them transformed the modus operandi of the entire sectors of the economy, benefiting competition and consumers alike. Over the past five years alone, the President of UOKiK conducted more than 3,200 investigations and explanatory proceedings related to competition and consumer protection, as well as to concentration control. He issued a total of 1,740 decisions pertaining to competition protection and 3,119 rulings protecting the interests of consumers. Below are examples of five high-profile cases and activities from the last five years:

Collusion involving the sale of KIA vehicles. After 1990, when the first decision was issued by the Anti-monopoly Office, the cars on the Polish roads changed significantly, as did the market practices. In 2024 the President of UOKiK issued a decision related to unlawful collusion between KIA Poland and dealers selling KIA passenger vehicles. The entrepreneurs had reached an agreement on the pricing of the vehicles they were selling and divided the market between them. Fines totalling nearly PLN 408 million were imposed on 12 economic operators and 5 individuals. The decision is not final.

Price fixing on the Warsaw heat supply market in 2020, the President of UOKiK imposed nearly PLN 120 million in fines on companies belonging to the Veolia Polska group, for reaching an agreement - with PGNiG group companies - concerning market sharing as well as price and bid rigging - practices that resulted in higher heating prices for the city of Warsaw. For the first time, the manager directly responsible for the infringement was also punished. The decision is not final.

In 2022, the President of UOKiK issued Recommendations on the tagging of advertising content by influencers on social media. The document was drawn up in consultation with representatives of the influencer marketing industry. A year later, the President of UOKiK initiated the “social media advertising round table” with the participation of representatives of the three largest social media platforms present in Poland: Facebook and Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Jeronimo Martins Polska - the owner of the Biedronka chain - illegally obtaining, from its produce suppliers, discounts that had not been agreed in advance. In 2024, the court of first instance agreed with UOKiK’s findings, thus confirming the ruling practice of the President of UOKiK concerning bargaining power.

In 2024, A working group set up by the President of UOKiK, with the participation of, among others, the Office of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and experts from the banking sector, was working on solutions intended to mitigate the risk of fraudulent transactions. As a result, recommendations for payment service suppliers have been drawn up. The document prepared at UOKiK includes a list of risk factors and a set of recommendations to reduce the possibility of fraudulent online transactions.

- If we were to sum up the state treasury revenue from the fines imposed by myself and my predecessors, we would be talking about many billions of zlotys. However, the benefits we all enjoy as consumers, thanks to UOKiK’s actions and decisions, are what matter the most. The importance of healthy competitions between entrepreneurs and fair relations between consumers and traders cannot be expressed in monetary terms. The anniversary of the establishment of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection is a great opportunity for all of us to celebrate. After all, “all of us are consumers” - says the President of UOKiK.

UOKiK in numbers (2020-2024)

• 1,044 explanatory proceedings
• 538 investigations
• 1,609 cases involving market concentration
• 2,424 soft calls to entrepreneurs
• 4,859 decisions issued
• 62,400 inspections relating to non-food products, services, and obligations of undertakings
• 33,000 anonymous notifications received the Whistleblower programme

More than investigations, decisions and fines

Investigations and decisions concerning protection of competition and consumers are just some of UOKiK’s activities. The authority is also offering consumer assistance, cooperates with numerous government agencies, drafts legislation, monitors quality of fuels, issues opinions on public aid and intervenes in the case of payment backlogs.

UOKiK plays also a key role in ensuring product safety in Poland. It plans, coordinates, monitors and analyses the outcomes of audits performed by the Trade Inspection Authority. Over the past five years alone, general product safety audits conducted by the Trade Inspection Authority have resulted in 224,000 hazardous products being withdrawn from the market. In support of those audits, UOKiK’s laboratories tested a total of over 9,600 samples, verifying in excess of 112 different product parameters.

UOKiK is also responsible for managing the fuel quality monitoring system. Between 2020 and 2024, the Trade Inspection Authority tested nearly 9.3 million samples of liquid fuels, including gasoline, diesel and LPG.

In addition to the results of Trade Inspection Authority inspections, UOKiK verifies signals from consumers and notifications from the supervisory authorities of other EU Member States, operating within the framework of the EU RAPEX system. Over the past five years, the President of UOKiK submitted 800 notifications that concerned over 10 million product items to the Safety Gate/RAPEX system.

Not only in Poland

UOKiK has been active on the international arena for many years now. The Office is particularly closely involved in the work of the European Competition Network (ECN) - a body it became a member of upon Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004. UOKiK also actively participates in the activities of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN). Over the past years, the Office has also implemented various projects under development cooperation initiatives targeted for EU candidate or developing countries.

Two years ago, Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK, became a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Group for the Digital Markets Act, aiming to support the European Commission with advice, recommendations and expertise on the application of DMA provisions and ensuring regulatory cohesion. In November 2024, the President of UOKiK was also elected deputy chairman of the OECD Competition Committee for 2025. The Committee brings together competition experts from all OECD member and partner countries.

UOKiK: informing, educating, providing advice

As the scope of its competence continued to expand, as the laws and regulations changed and as the markets and technologies advanced, the Office itself was transforming too. Protecting the interests of consumers and fair competition, UOKiK was simultaneously offering helpful information, raising awareness, educating, shaping entrepreneur attitudes and helping consumers.

– 35 years of service for consumers, entrepreneurs - for you. The history and all the activities of UOKiK cannot be summed up in a single press release. That is why I strongly encourage you to follow our website, social media accounts and to keep in touch with our social campaign and publications. You are also invited to participate in numerous competitions we hold and to take advantage of the tools we offer – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.