A busy start to the year for the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. He’s pouring out fines like crazy, other companies will pay millions

e importer of electronic monitoring equipment, Dahua Technology Poland, concluded a competition-restricting collusion with its distributors in Poland. The office imposed fines on six of them: Alpol, Alkam Security, Eltrox (formerly: E-commerce Partners), Delta – Opti and Techglobal. Seven managers (two from Dahua Technology Poland, Alpol and Eltrox and one from Alkam Security) were directly responsible for the prohibited arrangements and allowed the violation of the regulations. In total, the fines amount to PLN 37 million.

Entrepreneurs set the sales prices of products and divided the market among themselves by assigning customers to specific entities. This meant that consumers, companies and institutions were deprived of the opportunity to purchase electronic monitoring equipment cheaper than at predetermined rates. They also lost the opportunity to buy from entrepreneurs who could offer a better offer

– says president Tomasz Chróstny.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed a fine for price collusion and market restriction

“The proceedings showed that from the beginning of its activity, i.e. since 2016, Dahua Technology Poland influenced the pricing policy of distributors. The company set minimum prices by sending price lists to its contractors, below which they could not sell products, as well as by providing them with information about the maximum amounts of discounts. that they could apply. In addition, it imposed rigid prices on distributors by setting the rates as part of the promotions it organized. The setting could also take place at a lower level of the distribution system. Dahua asked distributors to apply fixed resale prices to their trading partners. Moreover, the importer monitored compliance with the arrangements. The distributors themselves also asked the company to intervene if any of them did not comply with the agreed prices, thus disciplining each other in terms of compliance with the terms of the collusion,” the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection informs.

Furthermore, Dahua restricted competition by dividing the market. “In the case of a large-amount transaction involving the installation of products, Dahua granted the first distributor who reported such a transaction a higher discount, as well as the so-called project protection. Another distributor could not then offer the same customer, for the same transaction, the same offer in competitive price. Dahua employees also took actions to discourage distributors from competing for the same project. Thus, the customer could only use the services of the Dahua distributor who presented him with an offer first, even if another one was willing and able to offer a more advantageous offer” – explains the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The penalties imposed were:

• Dahua Technology Poland – PLN 22,191,472.31
• Alkam Security from Jabłonna – PLN 1,750,168.85
• “Alpol” from Katowice – PLN 1,880,340.62
• Eltrox from Częstochowa – PLN 6,716,275.63
• Delta – Opti Monika Matysiak from Poznań – PLN 2,746,100.63
• TECHGLOBAL Marcin Gradzewicz (partner of a civil partnership) from Gdańsk – PLN 496,066.96
• TECHGLOBAL Michał Gałęzowski (partner of a civil partnership) from Gdańsk – PLN 496,066.97
• Artur Prusinowski – PLN 245,000.00
• Andrzej Jarzyna – PLN 75,000
• Dariusz Kondraciuk – PLN 100,000
• Piotr Bąchorek – PLN 85,000
• Paweł Zemła – PLN 42,500
• Zbigniew Dąbrowski – PLN 148,750
• Mateusz Kurowski – PLN 42,875.

A busy start to the year for the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection

This is the fourth decision of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection this year regarding a multi-million fine. First, we learned about , for advertising that was misleading customers. Then, the developer was supposed to encourage investment, but omitted informing about the risk, for which he would have to pay PLN 12 million. The company’s consultants allegedly misled customers as to the purpose of the telephone call. They informed about a free package of channels, while their goal was to sign a parallel agreement.