Employees of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), supported by police officers, conducted searches at Allegro offices in Poznań and Warsaw. These actions are part of an explanatory proceeding regarding a possible violation of competition protection regulations. The regulator is checking whether the e-commerce giant favored its own delivery and logistics methods, which could negatively affect the market position of external operators and independent sellers using the platform.

Searches in Two Cities

Control activities by UOKiK and the police were conducted simultaneously at the main headquarters in Poznań and operational offices in Warsaw.

Suspicion of Favoring Deliveries

The Office is investigating whether Allegro technically favored its own network of parcel lockers and couriers at the expense of external operators.

Potential Gigantic Fines

For violating fair competition rules, the company faces a financial sanction reaching up to ten percent of its annual revenues.

Company's Reaction to the Inspection

Allegro declares transparency and cooperation, while maintaining that the platform's operations are in full compliance with the letter of the law.

On Thursday morning, state services entered Allegro's main headquarters in Poznań and the company's offices in Warsaw. The action was initiated by the President of UOKiK, who decided to conduct the search to secure evidence in the ongoing explanatory proceeding. The Office is investigating whether the company abused its market position through so-called self-preferencing. The suspicions concern mechanisms promoting the platform's own logistics services, such as One Box parcel lockers, at the expense of delivery offers carried out by courier companies outside the Allegro capital group. The regulator indicates that signals of irregularities came from complaining consumers and other e-commerce market participants. Intervention with police assistance is a standard procedure in situations where there is a real need to secure electronic data from modification or deletion. Allegro, in an official statement, confirmed the control activities and declared full readiness to cooperate with inspectors. However, representatives of the platform emphasized that, in their opinion, all applied business processes are fully compliant with Polish and EU law. The company argues that algorithm modifications serve only to improve shopping comfort and accelerate delivery times for end users. The Polish Act on Competition and Consumer Protection of 2007 grants the President of UOKiK broad control powers, modeled on EU regulations, including the right to conduct searches with the consent of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection. The scale of the potential financial penalty, which can reach up to 10% of the company's annual turnover, is causing significant concern in capital markets. For an entity the size of Allegro, this would mean the highest sanction in the history of the Polish antimonopoly office. Investors on the Warsaw Stock Exchange reacted to these reports with a sharp sell-off of the company's shares, leading to a temporary drop in the market valuation of the giant. Competition experts note that the Allegro case fits into a broader European trend where regulatory bodies are treating the dominance of large digital platforms with increasing severity. 10% — of annual turnover could be the UOKiK fine