The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) initiated proceedings against Credit Agricole Bank Polska in November 2015. The President of UOKiK analysed how the bank modified terms and conditions of various agreements (in particular between 2013-2015), including fees and commissions related to personal accounts or credit cards.
The proceedings conducted by UOKiK demonstrated that Credit Agricole Bank Polska made unilateral changes to the contractual terms and conditions although it had no legal basis to do so. Moreover UOKiK decided the bank’s internal e-banking system did not have the characteristics of a durable medium at this moment and it could not be the only channel used to notify consumers of planned changes to agreements. The President of UOKiK was also concerned by the fact that the notifications of proposed changes to the agreement terms and conditions, addressed by the bank to its customers, did not include any legal basis for the circumstances of the change. In such a situation, the consumer did not know if, for example, a change in the ATM cash withdrawal fee introduced by the bank was provided for in the service regulations.
