Poland’s online marketplace Erli has taken legal action against rival Allegro, accusing it of abusing market power and engaging in unfair competition.
At the centre of the complaint is what Erli describes as Warsaw-listed Allegro’s insistence on consistent pricing across the internet, with promotional visibility, both on and off the platform, linked to how a seller prices products elsewhere online.
Erli CEO and founder Adam Ciesielczyk told Retail Insight Network: “Over time, we’ve observed systemic, multi-layered practices that undermine price transparency and restrict other market participants’ ability to compete on equal terms.”
Explaining the decision to sue, he added: “Given the scale and structural nature of these issues, we decided that legal action was the appropriate step to protect fair market rules and support healthy competition in Poland’s e-commerce ecosystem. Our objective is not confrontation for its own sake but ensuring that all market players operate under the same, transparent conditions.”
Allegro rejected the allegations. Group communications director Marcin Gruszka said: “We strongly disagree with Erli's position. We do not, in any way, impose a specific pricing policy on our Partners. Each of our Partners is free to set their prices across any sales channel. A Partner's pricing policy outside the Allegro platform has no impact on the positioning of their offers on Allegro, including their promotion within our service.”
Gruszka said Erli’s lawsuit relates to two areas: the “Allegro Prices” (“Allegro Ceny”) programme and the advertising of Allegro offers outside the marketplace, such as on Google.
“These benefits are funded by us, Allegro,” he said. “‘Allegro Prices’ is a program for sellers in which Allegro subsidises a reduction in the product price to make the offer more attractive to customers.”
He added: “We do not wish to subsidise the offers and advertising of Partners whose prices are clearly uncompetitive compared to the market.”
Allegro went on to say that the lawsuit forms part of a broader legal conflict between the two companies.
Gruszka also alleged that Erli has unlawfully used Allegro’s API, including to copy listings and content from Allegro’s product catalogue.
