On October 19, 2026, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), Tomasz Chróstny, decided to impose a financial penalty of 3,871,000 PLN on Aasa Polska Sp. z o.o. Supervisory authorities found that the company infringed the collective interests of consumers by applying practices that artificially inflated the total costs of the loans granted. This decision is not yet final, but it indicates serious irregularities in how the creditor presents and pushes its offers.
Mechanism of Forced Packages
According to UOKiK's findings, Aasa Polska's customers were forced to simultaneously purchase additional services as a condition for obtaining a loan or getting it on specific terms. These included medical subscriptions, online language courses, and legal or technical (IT) support packages. The price of these services ranged from a few hundred to several thousand zloty. Although formally the services were of a “voluntary” character, in practice their purchase was a mandatory requirement for concluding the loan agreement. As a result, consumers paid for products they often did not intend to use, solely in order to obtain financing.
The company automatically financed the costs of these additional services, meaning the expense for the package was included in the amount of the loan granted. This mechanism drastically increased the total cost of the loan for the consumer. For example, in one of the cases reported to the office, a package cost of 2,700 PLN was added to a 5,000 PLN loan. Consequently, the loan principal amount rose to 7,700 PLN, of which only 5,000 PLN was actually transferred to the customer's account. Another consumer pointed to the addition of a medical package fee of 2,400 PLN, which was automatically included in the financing costs, even though it did not directly relate to the granting of the loan itself.
Circumventing Regulations and Misleading Information
The President of UOKiK stated that the described actions constituted circumventing usury regulations and provisions contained in the Consumer Credit Act. Aasa Polska exceeded the statutory limits for non-interest costs by presenting the total loan amount in a way that included financed fees for additional services. This practice misled consumers regarding the actual proportions between the cost and the loan amount and led to a significant understatement of the Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (APRC) presented in the agreements.
Additionally, the company promoted offers with packages on its website as more attractive. The standard offer provided a lower loan amount and a higher installment than the variants with additional services, which could suggest to consumers that the second variant was more favorable. However, as the office determined, this had no basis in reality. Tomasz Chróstny emphasized that it is unacceptable to apply mechanisms that force consumers to buy unnecessary, outrageously expensive services solely so that they can obtain a credit.
Obligations After the Decision Becomes Final
The imposed fine of 3,871,000 PLN is to be transferred to the Financial Education Fund, whose administrator is the Minister of Finance and Economy. An appeal against the decision may be filed with the court. In the event that the decision becomes final, Aasa Polska will be obligated to publish a notice about the imposed fine. This information must be visible for a period of three months on both the company's website and its Facebook profile.