Annual bonus for accepting goods for sale as unfair slotting fee – the judgement of Polish Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has made another significant judgment (case no. I CSK 824/14) on slotting fees which are treated as practices of unfair competition under Art. 15.1.4 of the Act of 16 April 1993 on combating unfair competition (text in: ISAP).
In that case the court assessed an annual bonus in the form of an additional fee charged on a supplier of a chain resulting from the chain’s sales turnover in a given period. In particular, the Supreme Court considered if such a fee (calculated as a percentage of the sales) falls within the definition of a commercial margin or whether it is a different fee paid in exchange for accepting the goods for sale which is legally banned.
In the judgment, the Supreme Court received well a previous resolution passed by the Supreme Court on 18 November 2015 (case no. III CZP 73/15).