The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) recently opened a probe into e-commerce platform Allegro over potential antitrust rule breaches after it received complaints regarding Allegro's rules of cooperation with sellers.
The UOKiK is trying to determine whether Allegro is gaining unjustified advantages at the expense of professional and incidental sellers.
Therefore, the agency will specifically look at the conditions for charging and reimbursing fees and the rules for determining their amount.
To determine whether prohibited clauses are being used, the UOKiK will also examine the company's actions from the consumer side.
The investigation will examine changes to commission rules, which resulted in the commission covering the entire transaction of both the price and delivery costs paid for by the buyer.
Those changes led to an increase in commissions charged and resulted in negative reactions from sellers as well as numerous complaints addressed to the UOKiK.
The agency will determine whether the changes made to the payment mechanism violate competition law.
It is also suspected that Allegro, the largest shopping platform in Poland, is trying to use this mechanism to increase its valuation prior to its stock market listing.
The agency will also examine the reimbursement rules for the collected commissions in situations where the buyer withdraws from a contract concluded through the online platform.
Allegro has responded to the investigation stating that it is convinced that it will confirm the high standards of its activities. It will also fully comply with the UOKiK investigation.
