| In Principle

Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection often accuses businesses of using misleading advertising content, violating consumers’ collective interests. This can attract a fines of up to 10% of the company’s annual turnover. One reason for fines can be improper wording or appearance of disclaimers.

This latest edition covers the important topic of a new law on whistleblowers and difficulties that businesses may face once it comes into force. They challenges include the introduction or adjustment of relevant reporting procedures, course of proceedings related to reports, and mitigation of risks associated with the abuse of whistleblower rights.

The newest episode of news from Poland explains what the effects of bankruptcy will be on the Polish assets of a company and on its Polish creditors and, above all, what recognition of foreign bankruptcy is, what it is needed for and what it consists of.

Company shares are seen as an important element of the overall remuneration for professionals in the IT industry. This is also the case in companies developing video games. Prospective employees or contractors expect to be able to take a stake in the rapidly growing company as part of their remuneration package.

According to analysts, only 10% of startups are successful. Almost 90% of them fail—20% in their first year. On the record, such failures are often attributed to the founders’ failure to identify the customers’ needs, i.e. a real gap in the market, or blamed on competition and the uniqueness of the service or product. In less guarded moments, e.g. in online forums, much heavier accusations have been levelled against founders, such as the claim that most startups are designed to defraud investors or launder money.

Residential real estate prices in Poland have been rising steadily for many years. A house or apartment promised to be built or sold just a few months earlier may now have a market price much higher than on the date of signing of the preliminary contract. This may tempt some developers to renege on the final contract and instead sell the unit to another purchaser at a higher price. In such a case, what relief can the frustrated buyer obtain against the developer?

In the judgment of 24 July 2024 (case no. II CSKP 968/22), the Supreme Court of Poland ruled on doubts regarding legal standing to assert a demand for either contract modification or payment under Art. 3571 of the Civil Code in the event of an extraordinary change of circumstances (the rebus sic stantibus clause), on the part of a consortium of entities executing a public contract for a contracting authority. The court also commented on whether a claim under Art. 3571 can be made after the contract has been fully performed. This ruling is very important for contractual practice in Poland.

We devoted the third article in our series on biogas plants to administrative decisions and other requirements for implementation of biogas projects. In this article, we present the most significant legislative amendments concerning biogas plants that came into effect last year.

The Central Register of Beneficial Owners went into operation in Poland at the end of 2019. Since then, obligated entities defined in Art. 58 of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act have had to verify whether there is an individual in their structure who can be considered an ultimate beneficial owner, and report this information to the Central Register of Beneficial Owners.

In Poland, manufacturing and trading in technologies and devices for military or police use is a strictly regulated economic activity requiring a licence. But simply obtaining a licence is not the end of contacts with regulators. Changes in corporate authorities and some changes in ownership require notification to the relevant authority. Failure to comply with the notification obligation may lead to restriction or even revocation of the licence.

In the second article in our series on biogas plants, we discussed the requirements for classification of biogas plants during the development process. This time we will take a look at the obligations that must be performed before such an installation can start operating.

In business practice, it is common for contracts to be entered into by companies in the same corporate group. And sometimes the same person sits on the management board of both companies. Can the same person represent both companies in the transaction—and in a sense enter into a contract with themselves?