TP investigated after customers paid for 'free' calls

The Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has launched an investigation into Telekomunikacja Polska (TP). According to UOKiK representatives, leaflets advertising TP's new tariffs "Darmowe Weekendy" (free calls during weekends) and "Darmowe Wieczory i Weekendy" (free calls during evenings and weekends) may have been misleading for TP's clients. In November 2003 TP sent its subscribers advertising leaflets promoting the new offers, which said that clients choosing those new tariffs are entitled to free local and long-distance calls between 8 pm and 8 am on weekdays and without limitations on Saturday and Sunday. UOKiK believe that although the leaflets suggested that the services would be available from January 1 2004, in practice they were not activated for many subscribers after that date. In effect many of TP's customers believed they were making free calls when, in fact, they were paying according to their old agreements. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) D.W.