A hand with smartphone

President of the Office of Electronic Communications imposed a fine on P4 sp. z o.o. for not recording the subscriber's declarat

President of the Office of Electronic Communications (President of UKE) finds that P4 sp. z o.o. has not fulfilled the obligation to record the subscriber's declaration regarding the change of contract terms made by telephone. For this infringement a fine of PLN 10 000 was imposed on P4 sp. z o.o. 

The proceeding was initiated by a complaint of a subscriber who, during a telephone conversation with a consultant of P4 sp. z o.o., made changes to the terms of the concluded contract for the provision of telecommunications services. In such a situation, the Telecommunications Act imposes on the service provider the obligation to record, store and share the subscriber's declaration. In this case, P4 sp. z o.o. did not fulfil the above obligation and did not record the subscriber's declaration made by telephone.

The President of UKE, while assessing the scope of the infringement, pointed out that P4 sp. z o.o. committed a breach of the Telecommunications Act in the field of subscriber and end user protection in relations with the telecommunications undertaking. The breach resulted in the subscriber not being able to prove the contents of his declaration on the change of the terms of the contract linking him with the service provider. Consequently, the subscriber was deprived of the possibility to actually secure his interests (storing the subscriber's declaration is primarily to prove the changes he made to the terms of the contract with a specific content).

When assessing the current activity of P4 sp. z o.o., the President of UKE took account of the fact that the entity had already been fined, including for breaches related to the conclusion and performance of contracts for the provision of telecommunications services. At the same time, due to the individual character of the breach, the financial penalty needed to be proportional to the violation found.

On the other hand, in the opinion of the President of UKE, the imposed fine should also serve as a preventive measure and influence the fined entity to prevent another breach of its obligations in the future.

The decision is not final because P4 sp. z o.o. may submit an appeal to the court.

Information on consumer rights in connection with the use of telecommunications services can be found (in Polish) at: https://cik.uke.gov.pl/