The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has imposed more than PLN 72 million in penalties on Autocentrum AAA Auto, a leading used car dealer, for providing false information about the price of the vehicles on offer and using prohibited provisions in contracts that obliged consumers to confirm the technical condition of the vehicle, the Office said.
Customers interested in purchasing a vehicle and viewing the offer on the Autocentrum or Otomoto website were left in the belief that the amount indicated determined the price of the vehicle itself. However, the company did not inform them that the price in the ad consisted of the cost of the car and an additional product – ‘Carlife Guarantee’ insurance. Customers only found out about this when they visited the dealership, at the stage of finalising the contract, when the salesperson automatically gave them a ‘discount’ equal to the insurance premium they were required to pay. In reality, the consumer was not receiving a discount, but was paying for the Carlife Guarantee product. If the customer cancelled the policy – the premium was refunded not to them, but to Autocentre. At the same time, the company understated the price of the car on the invoice, which could be relevant when determining the value of the car or in the event of claims against the company, UOKiK reported.
Furthermore, in the advertisements on www.aaauto.pl and www.otomoto.pl, the company omitted the information that a mandatory “additional customer service” fee of PLN 1398 would be added to the price of the vehicle. After reading the vehicle offers on the websites, consumers decided to visit the showroom. However, it turned out on the spot that the price of the vehicle was higher. As a result – wanting to buy a car – consumers were obliged to pay additional costs, the amount of which they did not know and which they did not expect, the Office stressed.
For violating collective consumer interests, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed a fine of over PLN 67 million on the company, and for using abusive clauses – a fine of over PLN 5 million, the Office also stated. The decisions are not final – the company can appeal against them.
“The contractual provisions shifted the burden of responsibility for defects in the used vehicle to consumers. The company was able to invoke the disputed clauses when rejecting customer complaints by stating that the technical condition of the car had been thoroughly checked by them during the test drive. It is unacceptable for a trader to avoid responsibility for the product sold,” said UOKiK president Tomasz Chróstny.
Source: UOKiK and ISBnews
