Polish UOKiK brings charges against Legimi over subscriptions — RMF24

In Poland, the UOKiK regulator has brought charges against Legimi over a possible violation of consumers’ collective interests. The proceedings concern changes to the subscription offer and the rules for using the free trial period, RMF24 reports.

Moving publications to a separate catalogue

According to UOKiK, in October 2024 Legimi launched the so-called Club Catalogue, to which it moved some e-books and audiobooks that had previously been available under the standard subscription. To retain access to these publications, users had to pay an additional 14.99 zlotys for each publication.

The changes also affected users with active subscriptions, including those paid in advance for a specified period. The regulator noted that the rules in force at the time allowed individual titles to be added to or removed from the catalogue, but did not provide for excluding some publications from the subscription and moving them to an additionally paid offer. According to UOKiK, this could have limited the scope of the service for which consumers had already paid.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Trial period

The second charge concerns the introduction of a three-day free trial period. According to UOKiK’s assessment, the “I order” button, through which users began using the service, did not make it sufficiently clear that failing to cancel before the end of the trial period would mean an automatic transition to a paid subscription.

The regulator stressed that the button for concluding a contract must unambiguously indicate the obligation to pay. If the charges are confirmed during the proceedings, Legimi could face a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover.