Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 6, 1. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 7, 1. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 7, 4., (c)

(1) It is an unfair commercial practice to include false and misleading information about the calculation of the annual percentage rate and the total cost of a loan in consumer credit agreements.

(2) Stating in the contractual documentation that a contract is compliant with all applicable legal provisions, while in fact it has been established that the contract violates several legal provisions, constitutes an unfair commercial practice.

The defendant is a limited liability company, submitted in the register of entrepreneurs. It is a financial corporation offering cash loans for individuals and for business clients.

The defendant offered consumers a cash loan for an amount ranging from PLN 5000 to PLN 300,000, for a period from 1 to 30 years. When concluding an agreement, the consumer filled out the amount of the loan and the envisaged period for its repayment. Such action was designed to provide the parties with the exact contract terms at the time of singing of the agreement.

However, in the preliminary agreement the trader calculated the applicable interest rate on the repayment of the laon based on objective economic indicators, without taking into account individual data, for example, the amount of loans and the repayment period. Moreover, the defendant used a standard form of a loan agreement in which it was stated that the contracts are consistent with the requirements of the Polish legal system, and in particular with the requirements as set out in the Consumer Credit Act and the Competition and Consumer Protection Act.

(1) Is it an unfair commercial practice to include false and misleading information about the calculation of the annual percentage rate and the total cost of a loan in consumer credit agreements?

(2) Does stating in the contractual documentation that a contract is compliant with all applicable legal provisions, while in fact it has been established that the contract violates several legal provisions, constitute an unfair commercial practice?

(1) The court ruled that the information on the actual interest rate contained in the agreements was inaccurate due to the fact that the defendant omitted to take into account the actual data on the amount of the loan and the agreed period of repayment, as previously indicated by the consumer. As the court stated, information about the actual interest rate is one of the most essential types of information in this context which allows the consumers to compare the offers available on the credit market and to choose the offer they deem most suited. If a trader does not provide consumers with accurate information on this point,  the consumers are not able to evaluate the offers in a fully-informed manner.

Further, the court stated that the above-described practices were undoubtedly intentional and were established to induce consumers to conclude a contract.

(2) The court also came to the conclusion that the information presented in the agreements could have suggested to consumers that the defendant acts in accordance with all applicable legal provisions and that his offer meets all the requirements that are specified in the applicable Polish legal provisions. Such a statement was obviously false, as the defendant at least did not comply with the provisions on unfair commercial practices.

URL: http://decyzje.uokik.gov.pl/dec_prez.nsf/xsp/.ibmmodres/domino/OpenAttachment/dec_prez.nsf/760D4CF0AF2D6B85C1257912003226B1/Body/RGD-61-19-10_11%20MLM%20-%20Decyzja%20%20zik-%20_PKF%20SKARBIEC_%20doc.pdf

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The practice used by the defendant was found to be unfair. The President imposed on the defendant a financial penalty amounting to PLN 585,338.