As indicated by the office in a press release, the president of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny He charged Orange and T-Mobile for presenting discount prices, as if they were standard – both in advertising messages and during telephone sales conversations with a consultant. According to the office, consumers are encouraged by an attractive offer of a cell subscription or a wider package of services, but they do not immediately receive clear information that failure to meet certain conditions, e.g. Failure to grant certain consents to marketing and e-invoice will be associated with higher fees.
T-Mobile heard allegations for presenting prices for services taking into account a discount of PLN 5 per month for, among others Expressing marketing consents and settling on the basis of received e-invoices.
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“When making decisions, consumers may not know that the price that has been presented to them is conditioned,” UOKiK said. He added that T-Mobile does not present the price without discounts or information about the types and amount of discounts included in the price, or does it in a illegible or ambiguous way, or at too late stage of concluding the contract. As a result, customers who ultimately do not want to, for example, agree to marketing, have to pay a monthly subscription by PLN 10 higher than indicated by the offer they decided.
Orange has heard allegations for similar practices, i.e. unclear presentation of discount prices; as well as the allegation regarding the loss of discount for connecting services in a situation of non -payment of the invoice on time. As UOKiK pointed out to consumers who do not pay bills on time, Orange increases subsequent invoices by the value of discount for connecting services about which customers are not informed, in the amount of PLN 20 for one number.
For example, if someone has three telephone numbers, the amount on the invoice for not paying bills within the period will be higher by PLN 60 – explained. At the same time, regardless of the withdrawal of the discount, the operator may charge interest for delays in paying the receivables. According to the President of the Office, such practice may violate the collective interests of consumers.
If the allegations are confirmed, both Orange and T-Mobile, there is a penalty of up to 10 percent. annual turnover. In the case of Orange, the upper limit of penalties would therefore be PLN 1.3 billion (last year's turnover PLN 12.7 billion), and T-Mobile-PLN 712 million (last year's turnover PLN 7.1 billion).
However, Orange Polska shareholders probably do not expect that the penalty will be high. The company's shares fell on Wednesday by only 0.6 percent.
Operators' position. “Long -term practice”
“We analyze the allegations made by Orange Polska and declare full cooperation with the office,” said the spokesman of the company Wojciech Jabczyński. He added that the company cares about finding a solution that “would be good for customers and operators”, due to the fact that – as Orange claims – on the telecommunications market All operators had the same, many years of practice to show prices for telecommunications services so far.
“The highest quality of service is a priority for us and we believe that in particular the issues regarding the contract and the amount of fees should be fully understandable to the client,” said Jakub Chajdak from T-Mobile Polska. He stated that the company tried to clearly inform about the price, type and amount of discounts and the rules for calculating them. “We also introduced changes in our communication resulting from UOKiK recommendations,” said Chajdak. He added that T-Mobile cooperates with UOKiK and hopes that he will be able to “develop a solution satisfying for all sides”.
Orange and T-Mobile are not the only telecoms, which the President of UOKiK has charged with discounts. They heard them, among others Vectra, Multimedia Polska, P4, i.e. the Play network operator and Netia.
