The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection is a central authority of the state administration. The Office is responsible for shaping the antitrust policy and consumer protection policy. It is the task of the UOKiK to ensure that only safe products that meet the essential requirements set forth in Polish regulations are available on the market.

The Office has the power to carry out proceedings concerning practices infringing on collective consumer interests, which may lead to a decision ordering the enterprise involved to cease the practices in question and pay a fine. Further consumer protection activities include ridding B2C contracts of prohibited clauses, i.e. contract terms that set forth consumers’ interests in a way that infringes on the law or good practices. Here, the major instrument used by the UOKiK consists of inspections of contracts used by enterprises. Furthermore, to protect the health and life of consumers, the UOKiK carries out proceedings concerning general product safety. Such proceedings may end in a decision ordering the enterprise involved to withdraw a dangerous product from the market and pay a maximum fine of PLN 100 thousand. The Office also monitors the market surveillance system, which aims to ensure that only safe products which meet the essential requirements set forth in Polish regulations implementing the so-called ‘New Approach Directives’ are available on the market. The Office is also responsible for managing the fuel quality monitoring and scrutinising system.

The primary antitrust instrument used by the President of the Office comprises proceedings concerning competition-restricting practices, i.e. abuses of a dominant position and prohibited agreements (cartels).

The President of the Office is also authorised to control mergers in order to prevent situations where a dominant entity is created on the market as a result of a merger. Since 2004, the Office has been providing its opinion on state aid schemes and individual state aid decisions prior to their notification to the European Commission.