On November 3, 2026, the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (Urząd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów, UOKiK) published that the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection (Sąd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów, SOKiK) confirmed Jeronimo Martins Polska, the operator of Biedronka, misled consumers in the promotions Specjalna Środa and Walentynkowa Środa, and cut the fine from nearly PLN 105 million to almost PLN 84 million. The judgment is not final: the company may appeal to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, and the President of UOKiK has said the office will appeal the reduction.
Grocery banners that advertise a percentage refund, a voucher or a loyalty cap to shoppers in Poland must immediately check that every promotional benefit advertised in Poland, including a 100 percent voucher refund, states the product limits, minimum next spend and loyalty-card caps with the same prominence as the benefit, before the next campaign goes live, or UOKiK can find the practice an intentional breach of consumer interests and impose a fine, as the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection did for Jeronimo Martins Polska at almost PLN 84 million in a first-instance judgment that is still open to appeal. Misleading consumers, as the December 2025 UOKiK decision and the court both describe it, is advertising a 100 percent voucher refund while the product limits, the minimum next spend and the one-voucher cap per loyalty card stay off the advertisement.
- Authority: President of UOKiK, confirmed by SOKiK at first instance
- Entity: Jeronimo Martins Polska (Biedronka)
- Measure and amount: fine of almost PLN 84 million, reduced from nearly PLN 105 million, not final
- Legal basis: misleading consumers during the promotions (wprowadzanie konsumentów w błąd podczas promocji)
- Decision date: UOKiK published the confirmation on November 3, 2026. The underlying decision is from December 2025. The judgment day is not stated in the release.
- Appeal or compliance window: the company may appeal to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw. UOKiK intends to appeal the reduction. That path belongs to the parties, not to other retailers.
- Official source: UOKiK release of November 3, 2026
What happened
In December 2025 the President of UOKiK fined Jeronimo Martins Polska nearly PLN 105 million for the way Biedronka advertised a "100 percent refund on a voucher" in Specjalna Środa and Walentynkowa Środa. The company appealed. SOKiK agreed the practice misled consumers and that the breach was intentional, and reduced the penalty to almost PLN 84 million. UOKiK published that outcome on November 3, 2026.
The voucher was not spendable on any purchase. A chocolate purchase could yield a voucher of PLN 13.99 for cosmetics only if the shopper then spent at least PLN 29.99. A sausage purchase could yield a voucher for fruit and vegetables, again with a minimum next spend. For goods sold by weight the refund covered at most one kilogram, and one loyalty card could receive only one voucher. Those limits sat on the internet, on in-store notices, or on the voucher handed over after the purchase, not beside the promise.
| Step | What the sources state |
|---|---|
| December 2025 | UOKiK decision: nearly PLN 105 million |
| November 3, 2026 | UOKiK reports the SOKiK judgment: almost PLN 84 million, not final |
| Appeal | Company may appeal to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw. UOKiK will appeal the cut. |
The breach
The December 2025 decision, which the court upheld on the finding of a breach, concerned misleading consumers during the promotions: the advertised 100 percent voucher refund could be used only on conditions that were not known at the time of purchase. UOKiK also records that, while preparing the Walentynkowa Środa advertisement, Jeronimo Martins Polska deliberately left out which products the voucher covered and how much the next purchase had to be. The office treats that choice, with the other circumstances in the decision, as proof the breach was intentional.
This is not the first signal the company received. UOKiK states it had told Biedronka repeatedly that the benefit and the limits must be shown with equal prominence, and that the company was the addressee of two commitment decisions on how promotions are communicated. President Tomasz Chróstny said the 100 percent refund sounded like a strong offer while the rules were again misleading, and that the chain knew how promotions should be explained. The same release notes earlier first-instance confirmations against the company, still awaiting a second instance, of PLN 506 million on contractual advantage and PLN 160 million on the anti-inflation shield, and two final fines the company has paid: PLN 115 million on shelf versus checkout prices and PLN 60 million on origin labelling of fruit and vegetables.
Who else is in the same regime
The audience is not Biedronka. It is grocery banners that advertise a percentage refund, a voucher or a loyalty cap to shoppers in Poland, under the same consumer-protection standard the court applied to this promotion. The release of November 3, 2026 names only Jeronimo Martins Polska. The test the court accepted is whether the limits travel with the benefit, not which banner runs the campaign.
Obsidian tracks 10 regulatory texts, in force, amended or in preparation, for the ESG and sustainability industry in Poland, as of November 2026. That count is the register depth for the industry slice, not a census of consumer-protection decisions.
What to check now
- Place every product restriction next to the advertised benefit, with the same prominence, before the campaign goes live.
- State the minimum next spend in the same place as the voucher or refund promise, not only on the voucher issued after purchase.
- State the loyalty-card cap, including a rule of one voucher per card, beside the benefit.
- For goods sold by weight, state any maximum such as one kilogram in the advertisement itself.
- Keep the creative file: the Walentynkowa Środa file showed the company dropped product scope and next-spend conditions on purpose, and the court treated that as intentional.
Continuous per-jurisdiction monitoring is how a compliance team sees a published enforcement confirmation the day the authority posts it.
