lyoness-logoIn 2013 a legal complaint was filed against Lyoness in the Polish  Court of Competition and Consumer Protection (abbreviated as CCCP in English or SOKiK in Polish).

The complaint raised the question of whether Lyoness’ affiliate Terms and Conditions were illegal under Polish Consumer Protection law.

The case has been playing out for almost three years, with a decision finally reached last month.

On March 13th, 2016, the CCCP ruled Lyoness’ use of the following Terms and Conditions were illegal:

1. With termination of the affiliate agreement, in the event contracts were advanced / partly paid (original vouchers or gift cards), affiliates shall not be entitled to a refund of advance payments / partial payments.

2. The agreement may be terminated by Lyoness with good reason with immediate effect .

Important reasons include those that are outside the violation of economic interests and reputation or Lyoness business Partners, in particular, breach of contractual obligations, unless the failure or violation is not remedied within a reasonable period after delivery of written notice.

3. Lyoness reserves the right in its sole discretion the right (eg. in case of death) to cancel or terminate the contract binding complex orders for vouchers or gift cards and the repayment of advances / payments of partial, less an administrative fee and paid the benefits of participation.

4. Text amendments to these General Terms and Conditions of Contracts and other contractual agreements between an affiliate and Lyoness are deemed accepted by the Program Participant, if within 14 days after notification of the change in text form an affiliate does not challenge its validity.

The remainder of the case against Lyoness was dismissed, however at this stage details of the rest of the case are unclear. What we do know however is Lyoness are able to appeal the decision.

At the time of publication it appears no appeal has been filed.

In 2014 the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland (OCCP) publicly claimed Lyoness was a pyramid scheme.

To date they have not initiated any legal proceedings against the company. Whether or not the CCCP court decision will result in legal action being taken by OCCP remains to be seen.

In a separate case in Austria, last month the Vienna Court of Appeals upheld Lyoness’ Terms and Conditions were illegal.

 

Update 13th February 2020 – On December 30th, 2019, UOKiK ruled Lyoness is a pyramid scheme.