The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has imposed a fine of 3.043 million zlotys on Neonet for practices relating to the sale of products on the Allegro platform. According to the authority’s findings, the company provided customers with false information regarding the availability of certain products and their dispatch dates. The decision is not yet final and may be appealed.
The proceedings concerned the activities carried out via the Neonet seller account, previously operating under the name NEO-24. As the OCCP points out, the company offered products marked as available and ready for dispatch within 24 hours, even though they were not always in stock. As a result, some orders were not fulfilled within the stated timeframes.
For e-commerce customers, delivery time is one of the most important criteria when choosing a product. In the marketplace environment, where identical products are often sold by multiple sellers, even a slight difference in delivery time can influence a purchasing decision. For this reason, information on availability and dispatch is regarded by regulators as a key element of a commercial offer.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) also highlighted the way in which the company communicated with customers. The Office’s findings indicate that consumers were not kept up to date regarding problems with order fulfilment. In many cases, they had to contact the seller themselves to ascertain the status of their parcel. Responses would only arrive after several or more than a dozen days, by which time it turned out that the product was unavailable or the delivery date remained unknown.
According to Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), such practices breach the fundamental principles of online commerce, as consumers make purchasing decisions based on the terms and conditions declared by the seller. The Office emphasises that businesses should not only provide accurate information on product availability, but also promptly communicate any potential delays.
This case highlights the regulator’s growing focus on the quality of information presented in e-commerce. For sellers operating on marketplaces, this means they must synchronise stock levels and delivery dates even more closely with their actual operational capabilities.
