Poland's competition and consumer protection authority has fined Live Nation over 15 million zlotys and ordered it to refund consumers. The same body has published a concert and festival guide aimed at the public: read from the other side of the box office, it is a checklist for anyone selling tickets in Poland.
What UOKiK has decided
The case isn't about prices. It's about the terms and conditions — the terms a buyer accepts on purchase and that later get applied at the door. That's how the regulator's own release tells it, dated April 2026: UOKiK — Urząd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów — closed the case with a fine of over 15 million zlotys, in the body's own wording, plus an order for consumer refunds.
Three clauses underpin the decision.
| Clause | What the terms and conditions said, according to UOKiK |
|---|---|
| Luggage | Banned entry with "luggage" without defining what counted as luggage or from what size, and was applied unevenly across entry points |
| Cancellation refund | Not automatic: required the buyer to submit a request within six months of the event's original date, and if they didn't, they lost the money |
| Cloakroom and storage | Reserved the right to refuse items, destroy unclaimed items after 14 days, and extinguish consumer claims |
All three share a pattern: none is a business decision visible on the event listing. They're terms that only get read when something goes wrong. And the luggage clause can't be checked before leaving home: a ban that doesn't define its object or set a threshold, applied unevenly, leaves the rule in the hands of whoever is on the door.
The financial part of the decision has two strands. Anyone who bought tickets for cancelled events between 8 May 2024 and the date the decision becomes final and didn't receive a refund must be paid within one month of the decision becoming final. And anyone charged for the deposit or cloakroom in that same period must have those costs reimbursed, on proof of payment.
Note the hinge both strands turn on: finality. The decision is not final, and Live Nation can appeal it before the courts. Until that's resolved, the refund deadlines don't start running. In the release, UOKiK's president, Tomasz Chróstny, argues that terms and conditions cannot work against the consumer, and that once a ticket is bought, the rules must be clear.
The concert guide, read from the box office
The second document is of a different nature. The concert and festival guide UOKiK published in 2026, promoted under the heading «Sold out?», is not a binding rule. It's an explanatory document: the authority's reading of rules that are binding — consumer rights, unfair commercial practices, the Code of Petty Offences. It creates no new obligations; it says how the body that opens the cases interprets them.
It's written for fans — it even puts concert noise at around 100-110 dB and recommends earplugs — but its section on buying tickets reads, point by point, like a set of terms.
| Before purchase | What UOKiK's guide says |
|---|---|
| Total cost | The buyer has the right to know the total cost of the ticket already at the stage of viewing the offer |
| Price breakdown | Ticket price, service fee (*opłata serwisowa*), delivery cost, and any additional products or services |
| Add-ons it lists | Ticket cover, ticket insurance, option to refund or change details, and reminder SMS |
| Drip pricing | If the price suddenly rises at checkout because of mandatory fees not disclosed beforehand, that may be drip pricing, an unfair practice |
| Availability | Must not claim tickets are available when that's untrue, nor that they've sold out when in fact they'll still be available to buy |
| Virtual queue | Must explain clearly how it works, communicate clearly when tickets are running out, and not mislead on the number of tickets or their availability |
| Dynamic pricing | Prices can change based on demand, purchase timing, and popularity, and the seller must guarantee clear, truthful information |
| Who's selling | Must provide the event's participation terms, its own contact details, and the details of any intermediaries (*dane ewentualnych pośredników*) |
Two readings are worth underlining. One: dynamic pricing is not banned in Poland; the guide accepts it and shifts the requirement onto information. The other: the line isn't drawn at how much is charged, but at when it's disclosed. Drip pricing is an unfair practice because the mandatory fee appears late, not because it exists.
One upstream detail decides whether the rest applies: consumer rights only exist when buying from a trader (*prawa konsumenta przysługują tylko przy zakupie od przedsiębiorcy*). Buying from a private individual carries no consumer protection.
The rest is just as concrete. Presale gives access before the official onsale start, can be limited to fan club members or newsletter subscribers, and its codes are usually individual and non-transferable. On ticket content, the guide lists: event name, date and time, venue name and address, ticket type (standard, reduced, VIP), seat with section, row and number, price, a unique identifier — number, barcode, or QR code — needed for access control, and the organiser's details. As optional, it places the full name on named tickets, the organiser's contact details, terms and conditions of participation, and the schedule. On named tickets, entry may require an ID document matching the ticket's details.
Two further obligations that often get overlooked in production. If the artist exercises the right to ban recording or broadcasting the performance, that information must be given no later than the moment the ticket is purchased. And if camping at a festival is included in the price, the organiser must guarantee enough spaces for all participants.
What doesn't work in Poland the way it does in southern Europe
Here's what a promoter from southern Europe might take for granted — and shouldn't.
Resale for profit is an offence. The guide leaves no grey area: *odsprzedaż biletów z zyskiem jest w Polsce zabroniona* — reselling tickets for profit is banned in Poland — it's an offence punishable by arrest or a fine, grounded in article 133 § 1 of the Code of Petty Offences. The document adds that the same conduct can be legal in other countries. For secondary-market fraud, it recommends three routes: a chargeback with the bank if paid by card, reporting it to the police, and reporting the suspicious website to CERT Polska.
The 14-day withdrawal right doesn't exist for a dated ticket. When buying a ticket for an event with a set date, there's no right to withdraw from an online contract within 14 days without giving a reason, and a refund is only possible if the seller's terms provide for one, often with a charge. What governs an ordinary refund is therefore the seller's own terms, just like any well-drafted ticket refund policy.
The flip side is more demanding. If the event is postponed, the seller must refund the ticket price or allow it to be used on the new date. If it's cancelled, the organiser can offer alternatives — a voucher, tickets for another artist, invitations to the next edition — but the choice belongs to the consumer, who can reject them and demand the money back. And in those situations, which the guide also extends to a change of venue or date and time, the consumer gains the right to withdraw: the ticket price must be refunded, along with all mandatory costs incurred in the purchase. Note what just happened to the service fee.
The cloakroom is a contract, not a favour. Leaving belongings amounts to a deposit contract (*umowa przechowania*) between the consumer and the venue operator. The trader cannot exclude its liability in full: clauses to that effect, for example in the terms and conditions, are unlawful. The operator is liable for items regardless of whether the service is paid or free, and can be made to pay compensation for lost or damaged belongings. If the terms state that after a short period — *np. kilkunastu dniach*, roughly a dozen or so days — items become the operator's property or claims are extinguished, those clauses may not be permitted. And a placement rule that's easy to breach without meaning to: the storage terms must be displayed where the contract is made, that is, where items are handed over. That the basic rules also appear in the event's own terms is, the guide says, goodwill on the organiser's part.
A complaint runs on a clock. The first step is knowing who answers for what: the guide gives two clear examples — an illegibly printed ticket is a complaint for the *bileteria*, a change of line-up is a complaint for the organiser. Then the deadline: the trader has 14 days to respond, and failure to respond within that period means the complaint is deemed upheld.
Two scenarios the guide treats separately remain. If the event is cancelled and the organiser goes bankrupt, claiming becomes harder, and a card payment opens the door to a chargeback. And in cross-border purchases, anyone buying a ticket for an event in another country may be contracting with a trader operating under that state's law: complaint and refund rules may differ from Poland's. For disputes with companies based in the EU, Norway, or Iceland, free help is available from the European Consumer Centre.
Why it matters
UOKiK wrote the guide for fans, but every right it lists is someone else's duty, and that someone is whoever is selling. Turned on its head, it's the terms of engagement for the Polish market. And it arrives with a decision from the same authority against the world's biggest promoter sitting on the table.
Three things are taken for granted in southern Europe and aren't in Poland.
First: resale for profit is an offence, not a business line. The official resale market model built in other countries doesn't find the same room here: neither Spain's resale cap nor the Italian case transfers to a country where the conduct sits in the Code of Petty Offences.
Second: 14 days of silence closes a complaint against the company. A badly-managed inbox stops being a reputation problem and becomes an automatic loss. The split of responsibility between ticketing agent and organiser has to be settled before the first email arrives.
Third: the ban on saying "sold out" when tickets remain reaches Poland through consumer law, not through a dedicated ticketing act. The guide derives it from the ban on misleading claims. In California, the same ban was written into a specific ticket-selling law. Same outcome, two routes. For anyone operating across several markets, looking for the sector-specific law isn't enough: the rule can sit in the general regime on unfair practices and apply just the same.
And a fourth, with the decision in front of us. What brought down Live Nation wasn't the price: it was the fine print. Undefined luggage, six months to request a refund, a cloakroom that reserved the right to destroy items and extinguish claims. Dynamic pricing, which draws most of the public noise, the guide accepts. The terms and conditions, which almost no one revisits once they're drafted, are what has cost over 15 million zlotys at first instance.
What to check before selling a ticket in Poland
- Total cost visible from the first browse, not at the last step: a mandatory fee that appears at checkout is drip pricing.
- Price broken down: ticket, service fee, delivery, and add-ons. Cover, insurance, refund or detail-change option, and reminder SMS — genuinely optional, with no pre-ticked boxes.
- Any intermediaries' details published, alongside the participation terms and your own contact details.
- Who's allowed to write "sold out", and against what inventory. Saying it while tickets will still be available is misleading.
- A documented virtual queue: how it orders buyers and what gets communicated once tickets run out. No availability figure you can't stand behind.
- Terms and conditions, clause by clause. Define what counts as luggage and from what size, and make sure every entry point applies the same rule: it was the first clause flagged.
- An automatic cancellation refund, with no form or request deadline that costs the buyer their money, and for the right amount: price plus all mandatory costs. If postponed, the two open paths: refund, or allow the ticket to be used on the new date.
- Alternatives offered as an option, never as a substitute: the consumer can reject the voucher and ask for the money.
- The cloakroom treated as a deposit contract. No blanket exclusion of liability, and no clauses that, after a few days, hand ownership to the venue or extinguish claims. Its terms displayed where items are handed over.
- The 14-day clock, built into the process. Who answers what, what goes to the *bileteria* and what to the organiser. Without that split, silence decides for you.
- Timely notices: the recording ban, disclosed no later than the moment of purchase; included camping, sized for every participant.
- No in-house resale-for-profit channel. Here, the secondary market is contained by limiting and tracking the primary one — that's where resale control tools come in.
- Cross-border sales with the applicable law spelled out: complaint and refund rules may not be Poland's, and the other party may be the European Consumer Centre.
What we haven't been able to verify
- The decision is not final. Live Nation can appeal it before the courts and its content may change; the refund deadlines depend on that finality.
- We don't have the full text of the decision, only the release published by the authority itself. We cite no case number or Polish provisions beyond article 133 § 1 of the Code of Petty Offences, which the guide identifies.
- We haven't converted the fine into euros, nor given a more precise figure than "over 15 million zlotys", which is UOKiK's own wording. We also don't know how many consumers the refunds cover or how much they total.
- The guide is explanatory. It's the regulator's reading, not a binding rule: the final interpretation of a specific case is for the courts, as the document itself notes.
- UOKiK does not state that the guide is a consequence of the Live Nation case, and neither do we.
- We haven't checked how platforms currently operating in Poland apply these rules. Nothing here assesses the compliance of any specific ticketing company.