Polish broadband provider Vectra was slapped with a PLN22 million (US$5m) fine for illegally raising subscription fees by Poland's consumer watchdog, which stated the company had taken advantage of consumers.
In a translated statement, Poland’s competition regulator Urzad Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentow (UOKiK) detailed the provider hiked prices between PLN60 and PLN 120 annually, to ongoing contracts between 2019-2020. It added the company had taken advantage of its stronger bargaining position.
The company set a deadline for consumers to agree to the price rise or terminate their contracts but automatically raised prices for customers who did not reply.
UOKiK president Tomasz Chrostny charged the company for the offence in 2021 stating Vectra did not have the “legal basis” to enact its price rise which was “misleading to consumers”. The regulator ordered Vectra to discontinue the price rise and refund consumers.
“The contracts with Vectra concluded for an indefinite period did not contain a clause specifying the criteria and scope of possible changes,” said Chrostny.
