In an order issued 22 October 2014, the Supreme Court of Poland refused to accept for hearing a cassation appeal by the president of the Office of Electronic Communications against the judgment of the Warsaw Court of Appeal of 19 September 2013 in which the court set aside in its entirety the decision by the regulator imposing a fine of PLN 2.5 million on PTK Centertel (now Orange Polska) in a case involving Centertel’s Zetafon offer.

In 2011 the president of the Office of Electronic Communications imposed a fine on PTK Centertel in the amount of PLN 2.5 million for failure to comply with the obligation to notify users of changes in prices, recognizing as users those who were essentially subscribers. The matter arose under the law in force before the Telecommunications Law was amended to extend the concept of “subscriber” to include users who had not signed a written contract for telecommunications services. Following an appeal by PTK Centertel, the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection reduced the fine to PLN 1 million. That judgment was appealed by both PTK Centertel and the regulator.

On 19 September 2013 the Warsaw Court of Appeal amended the judgment of the lower court, setting aside in its entirety the decision by the president of the Office of Electronic Communications in which it originally imposed a fine of PLN 2.5 million and also denying the regulator’s appeal. The regulator then filed a cassation appeal, which the Supreme Court refused to accept for consideration in an order issued on 22 October 2014, awarding Orange PLN 180 in fees.

The work of the team of lawyers representing PTK Centertel at all stages of the proceeding was led by Arwid Mednis, the partner in charge of the Privacy, Information and Communication Technologies team and Electronic Communications team at Wierzbowski Eversheds.