implementation of EU law

The consumer’s right to have goods restored to a condition consistent with the agreement

car

In the opinion of the Regional Court in Elbląg (judgement of 15 April 2015, I Ca 68/15), allowing the seller to rely in proceedings on the defence based on the pleading of the non-existence of the claim in case the seller fails to reply to a demand from the consumer (buyer) to have the good restored to the condition stipulated by the agreement, and as a result this demand being deemed justified, would mean the limitation in exercising consumer rights. The failure to react to the consumer’s demands within the prescribed term creates the fiction of allowing the claim, which means the seller in general accepts the pleading that the good is inconsistent with the agreement from the moment of the handover thereof.

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Posted on 29/10/2017 by Krzysztof Riedl in Consumer Law, Contract Law, General Issues

Promissory note enforcement vs. an ex officio review of unfair terms

loan

In the opinion of the District Court in Siemianowice Śląskie (judgement of 15 September 2016, I C 741/16), on the one hand the legislation provides for instruments making it possible to protect the consumer against unfair market practices, but on the other hand there functions a procedure of pursuing claims (in this case: payment order proceedings on the basis of a promissory note), which makes it possible to considerably weaken, in the consumer trade practice, the application of instruments of consumer protection. The Court, by limiting itself to an assessment of whether a promissory note has been issued correctly, does not need to examine whether a consumer loan agreement contains any abusive clauses, or whether the information obligations of the lender have been fulfilled, etc. Therefore, the provisions on payment order proceedings constitute a clear intrusion into the system of protecting the consumer against unfair market practices, which are described in Article 76 of the Constitution.

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Posted on 12/07/2017 by Krzysztof Riedl in Consumer Law, Contract Law, General Issues

A preliminary question from the Polish Supreme Court to the CJEU (case C-367/15)

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The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Poland referred its second preliminary question to the CJEU (following a previous one reported previously on Polish Private Law). This time it addressed issues of intellectual property protection, against the background of the 2004/48/EC directive of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The Court confronted this act with the domestic remedies in the case of copyright infringements, concluding that the possibility to award damages without ascertaining the real amount of loss, as set forth in the Polish regulation, is not compliant with the EU rules, excluding penal measures in these terms.

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Posted on 29/09/2015 by Mateusz Grochowski in General Issues, IP Law

Act on Consumer Rights Enacted

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A few days ago, on 24 June 2014, the Act on Consumer Rights was finally published. The Act transposes the Consumer Rights Directive and re-transposes the Consumer Sales Directive to Polish law. The Act was adopted on 30 May 2014 and it will come into force six month after its publication, in December 2014.

The vast majority of rules of the Consumer Rights Directive have been transposed outside of the Civil Code (although, during the work on the transposition, there were voices suggesting its inclusion into the Civil Code). Only a few rules of a general contractual character are going to be included into the Civil Code.

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Posted on 03/07/2014 by Aneta Wiewiórowska-Domagalska in Consumer Law