There will be individual penalties for price collusion

Dishonest entrepreneurs who took part in the collusion had until January 18 to come out - thus they had a chance to avoid being punished. Under the leniency program (i.e. leniency), the entrepreneur who first admitted to the existence of such an agreement could count on complete avoidance of the penalty. Subsequent partners had penalties reduced by 50%, 30% and 20%. However, these allowances ended with the introduction of the amendment to the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection, which took place on January 18. The amendment also added to the financial responsibility of entrepreneurs for agreements restricting competition, the responsibility of company managers.

Effective elimination of prohibited agreements

The introduction of the amendment into force is primarily aimed at more efficient and as quick as possible detection of prohibited agreements. They harm competition and disturb market equilibrium, therefore they should be eliminated as soon as possible. Therefore, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection must be more effective.

According to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, personal liability is to make managers realize that by agreeing to price collusion, they are knowingly breaking the law. In the case of enterprises, new solutions can be introduced to make employees aware of the situations in which they may break the law. One of them is compliance - a system of rules that honest employees should follow.

The penalties that companies will incur for price fixing have not changed. They will continue to amount to 10% of revenues. On the other hand, individual penalties will be introduced for company managers and natural persons. The penalty will be analyzed separately in each case, and when not determining its amount, the following will be taken into account:

• the degree of violation of the regulations,
• financial possibilities of the enterprise.

Remember! The individual penalty for price collusion may be as high as PLN 2 million.

Price collusion, i.e. an agreement restricting competition

Entrepreneurs should remember that any fixing (direct or indirect) of prices or all other conditions for the purchase or sale of goods is a price fixing. This is stated in Art. 6 sec. 1 of the Act on competition and consumer protection of February 16, 2007:

 

Art. 6 sec. 1: 1. Agreements the purpose or effect of which is to eliminate, restriction or otherwise violation of competition on the relevant market, consisting in particular of: 1) determining, directly or indirectly, prices and other terms of purchase or sale of goods; 2) limiting or controlling production or sale and technical progress or investment; 3) dividing the sales or purchase markets; 4) cumbersome or inconsistent use in similar agreements with third parties terms of contracts that create different conditions for these people competition; 5) making the conclusion of the contract conditional on acceptance or fulfillment by the other party any other benefit that has no material or customary relationship with the subject of the contract; 6) limiting access to the market or eliminating entrepreneurs from the market not covered by the agreement; 7) agreeing by entrepreneurs joining the tender or by these entrepreneurs and the entrepreneur who is the organizer of the tender conditions of the offers submitted, in particular the scope of work or the price.

 

Depending on the nature of the price collusion, it may take two levels - horizontal (agreement between entrepreneurs competing with each other) and vertical (entrepreneurs not competing with each other, e.g. a manufacturer with a distributor). Importantly - in the eyes of the law, it does not matter whether the entrepreneurs colluded to a specific price, it is important that they intended to do so.