The companies that are part of the Pekao S.A. Group in 2023 also had their own regulations in this area, including: Pekao Direct’s policy against restrictive practices and practices that violate the collective interests of consumers, Pekao Bank Hipoteczny S.A.’s policy against restrictive practices and practices that violate the collective interests of consumers, Antitrust Procedure, Counteracting practices restricting competition and violating the collective interests of consumers (Pekao Leasing).
GRI[
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3-3
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206-1
The Bank and its subsidiaries are bound by the Bank Pekao S.A. Group’s policy on counteracting practices restricting competition and practices that violate the collective interests of consumers. The policy defines the basic rules for the Bank’s employees to act in accordance with antitrust and unfair market practice regulations and the main tasks of the Bank’s organizational units in this regard. In 2023, the Bank did not pay penalties for violation of collective consumer rights and violation of free competition rules.
In a final judgment dated August 31, 2023, the Court of Appeals in Warsaw ended the proceedings concerning the appeal against the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection No. RLU-1/2020 dated July 10, 2020. The decision concerned the recognition as abusive of the provisions of Idea Bank S.A.’s template agreements in force with consumers with regard to the prerequisites authorizing the bank to unilaterally change these templates (so-called modification clauses). Since the products affected by the decision were taken over by the Bank as a result of the forced restructuring of Idea Bank S.A., the Bank became a party to these proceedings. The cited judgment for the most part upheld the challenged decision, which, however, did not impose an obligation on the Bank to pay a financial penalty, and the contractual templates that included the challenged provisions were not used by the Bank in offering the Bank’s products (they were only included in the agreements taken over from Idea Bank S.A.). In connection with the final judgment, the Bank performed its obligations arising from the decision to inform consumers, but at the same time filed a cassation complaint against the judgment (the proceedings are pending).
Legal risk issues related to CHF foreign currency mortgage loans are included in Bank Pekao S.A. Group’s Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, in sub-chapter Legal risk regarding foreign currency mortgage loans in CHF.