Abstract

The problem of charging fees other than the trade margin (so-called slotting fees) has been recently widely discussed in the context of the Polish Unfair Competition Act. It is an example of an act of unfair competition resulting in obstructing access to the market for entrepreneurs described in Art. 15.1.4 of the Unfair Competition Act of 16 April 1993.

Another example of an act of unfair competition which obstructs access to the market is discrimination (or favouritism) of tenants in some rental agreements with shopping malls when estimating common fees. Common fees can be described as fees which are necessary to maintain a shopping mall as a whole. They have to be paid by all tenants apart from rent. However, ways of estimating common fees in rental agreements can differ widely. Thus, there are tenants who are favoured or discriminated as compared with other tenants without any reasonable justification.

As a consequence, the discriminated tenants should have a right to take some appropriate measures against shopping malls which favour some of the other tenants. The claims should be based on the unfair competition law, especially Art. 15.1.3 and Art 3.1 of Unfair Competition Act.