RB: 50/2021
Date: December 8, 2021
Decision related to antimonopoly proceedings
Legal basis: Art. 17 item 1 of MAR – inside information.

Text of the report:

The Management Board of Benefit Systems S.A., with its registered seat in Warsaw (hereinafter, the "Company" or "Issuer" or "Benefit Systems"), in connection with the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the UOKiK) (hereinafter, the "President of the UOKiK") to initiate antimonopoly proceedings (the "Proceedings"), to which referred in report No. 63/2018 of 28 June 2018 and further to the Company’s reports Nos. 92/2018 of 28 November 2018, 20/2019 of 7 May 2019, 39/2019 of 1 October 2019, 7/2020 of 3 March 2020, 21/2020 of 30 July 2020, 51/2020 of 28 December 2020, 2/2021 of 4 January 2021, 19/2021 of 31 May 2021 and 38/2021 of 27 October 2021 would like to announce that on December 8, 2021 the Issuer received a decision of the President of the UOKiK (the "Decision") issued on December 7, 2021 ("Decision Date") pursuant to Article 12 section 1 of the of the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection of 16 February 2007, which concerns two suspected infringements (i.e. suspicion of making arrangements for exclusive cooperation with fitness clubs and suspicion of restricting the possibility of offering services as part of packages of sports and recreation services), in connection with which proceedings were initiated.

According to the Decision, the President of UOKiK did not impose a fine on the Company. The Decision is binding and concludes the Proceedings with respect to two of the three suspicions.

Pursuant to the Decision, the Company is obliged to:

1.    To offer at least one entrepreneur from outside the Issuer's Capital Group, which in 2018 offered sports and recreation packages in the B2B channel (the "Counterparty") and, if the parties agree, to provide to the holders of packages issued by the Counterparty on non-discriminatory terms sports and recreation services in 11 fitness clubs located in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants and having at least 700 m2 of surface area.

The obligation is to be fulfilled by the Issuer within 36 months from the Decision Date, for a period from 12 to 15 months; where the duration will depend among others on whether the Issuer decides to fulfil the obligation in clubs owned prior to the Decision Date or in clubs acquired as part of a share/asset purchase transaction.

2.    To make available, within a period of 24 months from the Decision Date, on its website all criteria required for inclusion of a fitness club in the MultiSport programme and other similar schemes operated by Benefit Systems, in the same manner as prior to the Decision Date.

3.    Within a period of 24 months from the Decision Date, within the MultiSport programme and other similar programmes operated by the Issuer, undertake cooperation with fitness clubs meeting the criteria for inclusion in the MultiSport programme and other similar programmes operated by Benefit Systems. The above obligation does not apply to fitness clubs belonging to the Issuer's competitors, offering sports and recreation packages in the B2B channel.

A detailed description of the commitments (in Polish language) is attached as an appendix to this report.

With regard to the third suspicion referred to in the Proceedings and in relation to which the President of the UOKiK issued a decision, of which the Issuer informed in report No. 2/2021 of 4 January 2021, the Company filed an appeal with the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection within the time limit provided for by law.