Unused credit on prepaid phone cards will be automatically paid back to users, rather than remaining with the operator, under new legislation put forward by Poland’s government.
Money that remains unclaimed – for example where no bank account is specified – will be transferred to a state fund used for digital public projects and fighting addiction to electronics among children and teenagers.
Janusz Cieszyński, a deputy minister responsible for digitisation in the prime minister’s chancellery, said that the draft legislation, which is part of a larger electronics reform bill already submitted to the Polish cabinet, is an implementation of EU regulations but “significantly enriched with a national component”.
“This is the most pro-consumer law in the history of the telecommunications market in Poland,” said Cieszyński, quoted by Interia. He said the bill would “give customers of telecommunications companies new powers”.
The deputy minister noted that the “controversial” provision of recovering funds from pre-paid phones had already been suggested by the country’s anti-trust authority (UOKiK), which had penalised operators and enabled customers to seek refunds.
“These were the guidelines of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and now we are giving it all in the form of a statutory guarantee,” said Cieszyński.
Under the legislation, customers will be able to specify a bank account to which any outstanding funds should be returned when registering for the service. That contrasts to the current set-up, which requires them to submit an application and often carries a fee of 20 zloty (€4.40).
Any money that cannot be returned to consumers will be transferred to the state-run broadband fund, which is used to pay for public projects such as high-speed internet or improving digital equipment at education institutions. It will also support initiatives fighting addiction to electronic devices among children and teenagers.
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Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
