Supporting polish economy
We have been serving Poles for over 20 years and promoting the idea of entrepreneurship in one of the most innovative areas of the economy. Currently, all our activities are focused on the Polish market. We employ people here, pay taxes and engage in social activity.
Our commitment turned out to be particularly needed in the first half of 2020, when Poland, like the rest of the world, faced the coronavirus pandemic. We then focused on three areas: ensuring safety, using the Allegro ecosystem to fight the negative effects of the pandemic, and supporting Polish entrepreneurs:
- The safety of our employees, customers, merchants and business partners has been our priority. We made sure that our platform ran smoothly amid the lockdown. We also supported our merchants so that they could deliver the products the customers needed quickly and efficiently. To additionally relieve pressure on the customers' household budgets, we offered our monthly Allegro Smart! package free of charge. We prolonged the campaign three times. We also extended its validity by three months for customers who had already purchased the package, so that they could benefit as well.
- We have made every effort to use the full potential of the Allegro ecosystem to fight the pandemic and its negative effects. The total value of our aid has so far exceeded PLN 375 million. We have engaged in a number of initiatives supporting our customers, merchants, Polish health care professionals and other groups of people particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. We have provided the much needed medical equipment to 40 hospitals and clinics, and we have supported local communities in various ways.
- Polish entrepreneurs have particularly suffered during the pandemic. Polish small and medium-sized enterprises are a group that we know well. We understand their needs, therefore, in the face of the pandemic, supporting our business partners was completely natural for us. For both businesses already present on our platform as well as those who have just started their online journey, we have prepared a three-month package that helped merchants improve cash flow and business stability by suspending the fees charged by us.
Allegro's impact in numbers
VAT paid by Allegro
CIT paid by Allegro
Allegro employee headcount
Allegro employees remuneration
Allegro's cost to fight the pandemic
Savings on delivery, thanks to the free Allegro Smart!
The amount of VAT paid by Allegro in 2019 will enable the Polish state to promote exports for seven years, or computerise public administration for two years!
We are a partner of public institutions and SMEs, and an active member of business organisations
Being Poles' favourite shopping destination, we are committed to raising industry standards by sharing knowledge
and promoting good practices.
We take part in public debates and contribute to designing the legal framework for business through membership
in Polish and European organisations.
As a responsible company, we are a constructive partner for Polish and EU public institutions and support
activities aimed at making Internet users safer.
Allegro in European business organisations
We take part in the debate on the future of the European digital economy and the legislation that regulates it. This is essential for European businesses to be competitive, especially technology companies and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Magdalena Piech, the representative of Allegro, has chaired The European Tech Alliance (EUTA) since 2018. The members of the organisation are leading and dynamically developing European tech companies from many industries. EUTA has been founded to engage in dialogue with EU institutions and to promote awareness of the challenges and opportunities faced by start-ups and scale-ups established and developing in Europe. This is accomplished through workshops, conferences and meetings organised by EUTA and its members in Brussels and other European capitals.
SME Connect
As a platform supporting 117,000 businesses selling on Allegro, we strive to make their voice heard in discussions about e-commerce regulations. Laws concerning consumer protection, personal data processing, product safety, as well as tax and postal regulations significantly affect the business of every company in this industry. To this end, in cooperation with the Polish Association of Employers and Entrepreneurs, SME Connect and other companies from the retail industry, Allegro has established the eCommerce working group.
SME connect is a pan-European network dedicated to SMEs that cooperates closely with the European Parliament. It facilitates presenting the postulates of enterprises and reporting barriers they encounter while doing business on the internal market. Allegro is also involved in the work of the European Digital Media Association (EDIMA), which brings together the largest global and European digital platforms.
Allegro in Polish business organisations:
Allegro is involved in the work of several Polish business organisations. Being a company from the e-commerce sector, we support the activities of the Chamber of Electronic Economy, whose mission is to develop the Polish digital industry through cooperation, exchange of know-how, legislative work and a strong and effective advocacy of common interests in dialogue with Polish state administration institutions.
We are also active in the Lewiatan Confederation, one of the most influential business organisations in Poland, representing various interests of employers. Together with Lewiatan, we strive to create competitive business conditions, better law, healthy competition, and good standards of work and social security, which should translate to higher employment and strengthening social capital. Our goals are similar in our cooperation with the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers.
In view of issues such as online advertising and personal data protection, we are also involved in the work of the IAB Polska Internet Industry Employers' Association. To create consistent and high standards of personal data processing in Poland, we cooperate in IAB Polska with other market participants to develop the code of conduct and good GDPR practices in the Internet advertising industry. We hope that the code approved by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office will offer the best protection of the rights of our users and partners.
Most of these Polish business organisations are also involved in the activities of European peers, including BusinessEurope, E-Commerce Europe, and IAB Europe. By contributing to their work, we ensure the best possible conditions for the development of our partners, many of whom are SMEs, on the European market, striving to ensure that the law created at the EU level guarantees the competitiveness of European businesses globally.
Cooperation with public institutions and voluntary commitments
Product Safety Pledge
In January 2020, Allegro was one of the first European companies to join the Product Safety Pledge. This is an initiative of the European Commission and the largest e-commerce platforms aimed at ensuring consumer safety and educating customers. Product Safety Pledge supports national and European market surveillance authorities in eliminating dangerous products from the market.
Allegro’s joining this initiative is an important aspect of our presence in Brussels as one of the largest European technology companies, and strengthens credibility in our relations with EU institutions that want to take advantage of our 20 years of experience in and knowledge of consumer protection on the Internet.
The ceremony of signing the documents by the CEO of Allegro was held in Brussels and was attended by Didier Reynders, the EU Commissioner for Justice.
In 2020, Allegro's direct cooperation with EU institutions, particularly with the European Commission, has intensified significantly. Being an increasingly important player on the European market of technology companies, Allegro has been actively involved in formulating the priorities of the new European Commission, under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, for the EU digital single market.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Allegro collaborated closely with Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders to protect the platform’s users from unfair commercial practices. Allegro is also actively involved in dialogue led by the Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager and Commissioner Thierry Breton on the best ways to overcome the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and to create the best possible conditions for the development of digital business and competition in Europe.
Memorandum of understanding on the sale of counterfeit goods
This is another year of our cooperation with the representatives of brands and the largest e-commerce platforms in Europe as part of the European Commission’s initiative (The Memorandum of understanding on the sale of counterfeit goods via the internet). Its main goal is for leading companies to join forces in the effective fight against counterfeit goods. Allegro, like other companies that signed the memorandum, voluntarily introduced solutions aimed at preventing the sale of counterfeit products to better protect customers against buying them unknowingly. Thus, we have developed solutions together that set standards of cooperation in combating illegal content. A report summarising the past three years of cooperation was published in August 2020.
We help stay safe online
The security of our customers' data is crucial to us. Over the years, Allegro has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about online security. We work closely with law enforcement authorities, institutions and NGOs to share knowledge and educate consumers:
Training for law enforcement agencies
For years, we have been running the largest ICT crime training program in Poland for representatives of law enforcement agencies. Our trainings were attended by several thousand police officers from city, district and province headquarters, as well as representatives of prosecutor's offices and courts. Since 2018 we have been organising the ICT Crime XXI Conference under the patronage of the Police Commander-in-Chief and in cooperation with the Naval Academy in Gdynia. We also work closely with the Police Academy in Szczytno, with which we have organised the Technical Aspects of ICT Crime conferences for 13 years, and our experts were lecturers at the Summer Cybersecurity School in Szczytno. In 2019 alone, we conducted over forty training courses for employees of the public safety sector.
Bezpieczne Z@kupy w Sieci program
The Bezpieczne Z@kupy w Sieci program under the patronage of the Police Commander-in-Chief is addressed to students aged 13–18, one of the most active age groups shopping online. Participants learn about the most common threats in online shopping, how to verify sellers, how to safely pay for purchases in cyberspace, and how to protect against identity theft. The program involves a series of direct meetings organised in cooperation with schools throughout Poland, public debates, printed information materials, lesson plans and cybersecurity-themed competitions. As part of the program, we also support the departments of cybercrime and crime prevention in their activity aimed at increasing the awareness of online threats, addressed to other groups of recipients (e.g. seniors and teachers).
Bezpieczeństwo w Cyberprzestrzeni
We are a partner of the Bezpieczeństwo w Cyberprzestrzeni program, organised by the Polish Bank Association and addressed to students from various faculties. As part of our involvement, we are responsible for two modules – “Shopping Online Safely” and “Consumer rights in distance contracts”.
Security Case Study conference
Since the first edition, we have been supporting the Security Case Study conference, currently the largest educational project devoted to IT security in Poland.