New rules in consumer law from 1 January 2023.

The amendment covered a number of national laws, including the following:

• the Consumer Rights Act,
• the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection,
• the Act on Counteracting Unfair Market Practices,
• the Act on the Provision of Information on the Prices of Goods and Services,
• the Code of Misdemeanours,
• Telecommunications Law,

The new provisions of national legislation will have a significant impact on many businesses, both those operating in the traditional market and in the digital environment.

The issue of the obligation to provide information on prices and organised price promotions is certainly of the greatest interest to both shop owners and consumers. Until now, the rule applicable to businesses was to present the prices of goods and services in a clear and unambiguous manner, allowing for price comparisons.

Under the new regulations, businesses will be required, in the event of a price reduction for a good or service, to disclose the lowest price of that good or service that was in effect during the 30 days prior to the introduction of the reduction.

This regulation is a response to the practice adopted by shops of artificially inflating prices before the start of a promotion, particularly ahead of promotional events such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, where the ‘promotional’ price was often equal to, or even higher than, the price previously in force. The aim of this regulation is to improve the situation for consumers by, amongst other things, curbing these practices.

Exceptions to the above rule are goods or services offered for sale for less than 30 days, and goods that are perishable or have a short shelf life. In the first case, if a given good or service is offered for sale for a period of less than 30 days, alongside the information on the reduced price, information must also be provided on the lowest price of that good or service which was in force during the period from the date on which the good or service was first offered for sale until the date the reduction was introduced. However, in the case of goods that spoil quickly or have a short shelf life, alongside the information about the reduced price, the price prior to the first application of the reduction must be displayed, and the 30-day period does not apply here.

Similarly, when advertising price reductions for specific goods or services, the advertisement must include information on the lowest price of the goods or services that applied during the 30-day period prior to the introduction of the reduction.

The method of displaying prices is regulated by the Regulation of the Minister of Development and Technology of 19 December 2022 on the display of prices of goods and services, which also came into force on 1 January 2023. It sets out how traders should display the prices of goods and services, as well as a list of goods for which the unit price of goods or services does not need to be displayed.

Consequently, a new information obligation has been imposed on traders, namely the requirement to inform consumers that the price offered to them has been individually tailored on the basis of automated decision-making (if the trader in question uses such solutions). This will apply in situations where the price of a given offer is individually tailored to a specific consumer or category of consumers based on automated decision-making. This will ensure that consumers are better informed when deciding whether to purchase a particular good or service.

A major and significant change concerns the regulation of reviews displayed on websites. From now on, a trader operating a shop is obliged to inform customers whether the reviews found under the goods or services on offer have been posted by consumers who have actually purchased the goods or services in question. This is intended to curb the unfair practice of posting fake reviews to boost sales. Businesses are therefore obliged to verify whether a review has been posted by a person who purchased the product in question. However, there is no obligation to make reviews available. Thus, if a business chooses not to allow access to reviews, it will only be required to state that no reviews are published.

A financial penalty of up to PLN 20,000 is imposed by provincial inspectors of the Trade Inspection Authority for breaches of the new obligations regarding price information, and in the event of failure to comply with these obligations on at least three occasions within a 12-month period, counting from the date on which the first breach was identified – a fine of up to PLN 40,000. The amended Act on Competition and Consumer Protection also provides for a financial penalty imposed by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

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