Tomasz Chróstny, president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), imposed penalties amounting in total to PLN 656 thousand for payment obstructions. The companies that have been fined are: Reckitt Benckiser Production (Poland), Beiersdorf Manufacturing Poznań and Firma Oponiarska Dębica.
The investigations indicate that the aforementioned companies have problems with timely payments and contribute to creating a payment gridlock in Poland. The amount of payment congestion generated by Reckitt Benckiser Production (Poland) amounted to PLN 153 million, and the fine imposed was PLN 554 thousand. As for Beiersdorf Manufacturing Poznań, the amount of payment congestion generated by the company amounted to PLN 10 million, and the penalty imposed was PLN 35 thousand. On the other hand, Firma Oponiarska Dębica was fined PLN 67 thousand and the amount of payment congestion generated by it was PLN 9 million.
The amount of penalties, according to the applicable statutory formula for their calculation, is affected by the scale of payment congestion generated by a given entity and the length of payment delays.
In addition, Tomasz Chróstny found that Przedsiębiorstwo Drobiarskie Drobex and Ampol-Merol were excessively late in fulfilling their financial obligations. The president of UOKiK did not impose fines on these companies because the Act on Combating Excessive Delays in Commercial Transactions obliges him to refrain from imposing fines if, in the period under review, the sum of cash payments received by the companies after the deadline exceeds the payment gridlock they have generated.
