Due to the prevailing coronavirus pandemic and the gradual resumption of court activities, polish government has been introduce new provisions to reconcile their functioning in accordance with the requirements of sanitary safety. For this purpose, the latest amendment to the Act of March 2, 2020 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 374, as amended) on specific solutions related to the prevention and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and the situations caused by them crisis (so called The “anti-crisis shield”) introduced, among others, the following changes in civil proceedings. I.    Court sessions online – to the anti-crisis shield has been added art. 15zzs1 – 15zzs5. which are regulating the way of conducting hearings in civil proceedings. In accordance with art. 15 zzs1 of the anti-crisis shield, there was introduced some options so that parties would not have to appear in court for hearings and public sessions. First, they will be carried out via telecommunications equipment. This means that the parties will be able to participate in the hearings through devices transmitting sound and image at a distance, e.g. by staying in the office of their attorney. The second option, in the event that it will be impossible to conduct a hearing by means of communication indicated above, and personal appearance may endanger the lives and health of participants, the presiding judge has the option of changing the public mode to unpublic. The party has 7 days from delivery of the order to oppose the session in camera. The above procedure in civil cases is to be the rule, and exceptions to it are exceptional in nature throughout the period of the threat of epidemic, the epidemic as well as one year after the termination of the last of them. All these modes will apply unless the hearing can be...Read More

At the beginning of next year, significant changes to the consumer law resulting from the Act of 31 July 2019 amending certain acts in order to reduce regulatory burdens [polish: o zmianie niektórych ustaw w celu ograniczenia obciążeń regulacyjnych] will come into force. It will include changes in the Civil Code and the Act of 30 May 2014 on Consumer Rights. According to the changes, consumer protection will be extended to entrepreneurs who are natural persons and conclude a contract with another professional entity, directly connected with his or her economic activity, but not of “professional nature”. It is not clear how to understand the term “professional nature of the contract”. The Act states that this is to be based on information entered into the Central Registration and Information on Business [polish: Centralna Ewidencja I Informacja o Działalności Gospodarczej]. For example, new rights will be available to an accountant who will buy a printer or a car mechanic who will buy the property in order to run his business on it. This is based on the assumption that when concluding contracts outside the industry or specialisation in which they operate on a daily basis, traders are not professionals but rather, like consumers, a weaker party to the contract and should be better protected. Firstly, the new regulations refer to the application of protection from unlawful contractual provisions. Thus a contract between entrepreneurs will not be binding, to the extent that it is not individually agreed and violates the interests of one of the parties. Secondly, the provisions governing consumer rights under the warranty for defects in goods will also generally apply to entrepreneurs. However, there will be still a possibility to extend, limit or exclude warranty liability in contracts concluded between professionals, regardless of whether the contract is of professional...Read More