Abstract

Protection of consumer rights against the use of prohibited contractual clauses may be pursued not only through individual litigation, but also in group proceedings (class action lawsuits). Although the subject of protection in group proceedings is the interest of a group of consumers rather than of its individual members, such interest cannot be equated with the subject of protection in administrative proceedings pending before the President of the Competition and Consumer Protection Office. In administrative proceedings, the subject of protection is the collective interest of consumers of an abstract nature, unrelated to a specific legal relationship, and this protection is of a public-law nature. In order to be able to assume that there is a relationship between the decision of the President of the Competition and Consumer Protection Office finding a provision in a standard contract illegal and prohibiting its use and group proceedings concerning protection of consumers against unlawful contractual provisions, a factor connecting both procedures should be found.