Category: News

The act on family foundations – the stage of legislative work

The bill is currently awaiting another reading in the Sejm, after the Senate submitted its amendments on 13 January this year. The bill was submitted by the Minister of Development, Labour and Technology.

Grounds for the novum

The legislator justified the introduction of the institution of a family foundation with the need to provide entrepreneurs being natural persons with the possibility to carry out an effective succession, which will give protection against the fragmentation of property created in connection with the conducted business activity and will enable its further use in the perspective of more than two generations.

It is crucial for the legislator to secure the continuity of private enterprises, in particular for the purpose of safeguarding families.

Although the institution of a family foundation is dedicated to the above-mentioned purposes, the founder does not have to be an entrepreneur and the foundation beneficiaries do not have to be in a family relationship with the founder.

General characteristics

A family foundation is to be a legal person created by the founder to accumulate property, manage the property in the interest of the beneficiaries and provide benefits to the beneficiaries. The benefit to the beneficiaries may consist of transferring to them, or giving them the use of, money, property or rights, this in particular may include the payment of their living expenses or education.

A foundation may only be established by a natural person, while the beneficiary may be either a natural person or a non-governmental organisation involved in public benefit activities. A foundation will be established either by making a declaration in a foundation deed (in which case there may be several founders) or in a will (with only one founder). The rights and obligations of the founder and the beneficiary will be non-transferable, unlike the beneficiary’s liabilities.

Organisational structure

The most important internal document of the foundation will be its articles of association to be determined by the founder. The articles of association will contain the essential regulations concerning the foundation’s organisation and manner of operation, inter alia, its specific purpose of operation, identification of the beneficiary and the scope of his/her powers, the duration of the foundation, if specified, and the rules for the appointment, scope of duties and the manner of operation of the foundation’s bodies. Optional elements of the articles of association will include, inter alia, guidelines for investing the family foundation’s assets.

A foundation will acquire legal personality upon registration in the registry of family foundations kept by the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski. The regulations concerning the register are largely modelled on the solutions adopted for the National Court Register.

The governing body of a family foundation will be the management board, which may be composed of one or more persons. The management board’s tasks will include, inter alia, taking actions related to ensuring the foundation’s liquidity and solvency.

The articles of association will be able to provide for the establishment of a supervisory body – the supervisory board. If the number of beneficiaries exceeds 25, the establishment of the supervisory board will be mandatory.

Another necessary body of a family foundation, besides the board, will be the beneficiaries’ assembly formed by the beneficiaries whom the articles of association grant the right to participate in it.

Under the provisions of the articles of association, individual members of a foundation’s bodies, in particular members of the beneficiaries’ assembly, may be granted more than one vote.

The rules for the internal organisation of foundations and their bodies are largely based on the solutions adopted for commercial companies, with the majority of these regulations being of a dispositive nature – they will apply unless the founder decides otherwise in the articles of association. Also the mechanisms for the termination of a foundation’s activity and its liquidation are similar to the solutions known in the company law.

Property of a foundation

The founder will be obliged to endow the foundation with property whose value is at least PLN 100,000 (the founding capital). A foundation will also be able to receive donations and inheritances. As a rule, a foundation will not be allowed to carry out business activity, with the exception of activities specified in the act, which mostly boil down to property management and making capital investments.

An inventory of property will be kept at a foundation, including a list of the property rights contributed to the foundation by the founder or persons other than the founder, indicating the person contributing the property and specifying the type and value of each of the contributed items of property, in an amount determined according to the state and prices at the time of their contribution and their tax value. The founder will be obliged to keep the inventory of the property contributed to the foundation to cover the founding capital. The management board will be responsible for keeping the inventory up to date.

At least once every four years, an audit firm or a team of auditors appointed by the beneficiaries’ assembly should audit the management of the family foundation’s assets, the incurring and fulfilment of obligations and public law liabilities, in terms of correctness, fairness and compliance with the law, the purpose and the documents of the family foundation.

Liability of a foundation

A family foundation will be jointly and severally liable with the founder for its obligations incurred prior to its establishment, including maintenance obligations. This liability will not be able to be excluded or limited without the consent of the creditor. A family foundation will also be liable for the fulfilment of the maintenance obligation incurred by the founder after its establishment.

A foundation’s liability described above will be limited to the value of the property contributed by the founder as at the time of acquisition and according to the prices at the time of satisfying the creditor.

Tax issues

A family foundation will not benefit from any extraordinary tax preferences. The income tax rate for the foundation and its beneficiaries in respect of benefits received from the foundation is to be 15%.

IMPLEMENTATION OF EU REGULATIONS

EU directives concerning consumer rights and governing certain aspects of contracts for the provision of digital content and services as well as contracts for the sale of goods have been implemented into the Polish legal order with a significant delay. The law implementing the EU regulations, i.e. the Act of 4 November 2022 amending the Consumer Rights Act, the Civil Code and the Private International Law Act, enters into force on 1 January 2023.  Therefore, from the New Year onwards, entrepreneurs providing digital content and digital services will be bound by new regulations, which will require them to adapt their business to the new provisions.

 

WHOM THE AMENDMENT APPLIES TO?

As already mentioned, the amendment applies to digital content providers and digital service providers. The existing Consumer Rights Act of 30 May 2014 (“Consumer Rights Act“) defines digital content as data produced and delivered in digital form. For example, it can be pointed out that digital content includes computer software, various applications, games, music and audio-visual files or e-books.

What is new, however, is the introduction into the Consumer Rights Act of a definition of digital services, which are defined as services that allow the consumer to:

• produce, process, store or access data in digital form,
• share data in digital form, which has been transmitted or produced by the consumer or other users of that service,
• other forms of interaction by using data in digital form.

Examples of the provision of digital services include sharing of video or audio content, hosting of files, broadly understood social media or data clouds. Digital services are provided via the internet, mobile devices or digital or satellite television.

 

CHANGES INTRODUCED BY THE AMENDMENT

The Act of 4 November 2022 amending the Consumer Rights Act, the Civil Code Act and the Private International Law Act introduces a number of changes to the existing legislation.

Among other things, it introduces modifications to the statutory warranty regulations. Moreover, the new provisions abandon the concept of defect in an object and introduce a new term – conformity of goods with the contract. At the same time, they define in detail the cases in which goods are to be considered to be in conformity with the contract.  The purpose of this regulation is to avoid some of the disputes concerning the scope of obligations imposed on entrepreneurs.

Definitely new are provisions introducing a hierarchy of consumer protection measures. Under the new regulations, a consumer will first have the right to demand that the goods are restored to conformity with the contract, either by repair or replacement. Only afterwards, if the repair or replacement turns out to be, for example, uneconomical, the consumer will be able to exercise further rights, i.e. demand a price reduction or withdraw from the contract. As before, a consumer will not be able to withdraw from the contract if the non-conformity of the goods with the contract is insignificant; however, there has been introduced an assumption, beneficial for a consumer, that the non-conformity of the goods with the contract is significant.

Furthermore, the time limit for the entrepreneur to handle complaints has been modified. Until now, the entrepreneur had 14 days to respond to complaints regarding sales contracts concluded with consumers, while in the case of other contracts (e.g. service contracts), the deadline was 30 days.  As a result of the changes, the deadline for responding to a complaint made by a consumer has been shortened to 14 days in any case, regardless of the type of contract concluded.

As a side note, it should be mentioned that the terminology used in the Consumer Rights Act has changed – the previously used term – ‘object’, has been replaced by a new term – ‘goods’.

 

 RESULTS OF THE AMENDMENT

The discussed amendment is important insofar as it implies the need for the entities offering digital content or providing digital services to introduce changes in their IT systems, documents and procedures concerning basically all stages of the entrepreneur-consumer relationship, starting with advertising and presentation of an offer, through performance of information obligations, contracting, contract performance and ending with after-sales service.

 

THE ORIGIN OF CHANGES

The Medical Devices Act of 7 April 2022 has been in force since 26 May 2022. It adapts the Polish legislation to the new EU requirements and introduces provisions to enforce and apply the obligations under Regulation 2017/745 on medical devices (“MDR”) and Regulation 2017/746 on in vitro medical devices (“IVDR”). Additionally, apart from setting out sanction provisions for violations of the EU MDR and IVDR provisions, the legislator has also introduced significant changes to the medical device advertising rules, which will be effective from 1 January 2023.

INTRODUCTION OF A PROHIBITION OF ADVERTISING OF AESTHETIC MEDICINE

In the Medical Devices Act of 7 April 2022, Articles 54 to 61 govern the advertising of medical devices. The new legislation provides for a total ban on advertising of specialised equipment targeted at the public from 1 January 2023. The entire sector of aesthetic medicine services will have to adapt to the new regulations, as advertising in this area most often refers to various types of implants, laser- and hyaluronic acid-based cosmetic medicine treatments.

The amendment to the Medical Devices Act also clarifies the rules for the advertising of medical devices. Such advertising, if addressed to the general public, must be expressed in a way that can be understood by a layperson, i.e. an individual who has no formal education in the relevant field of health care or medicine. This requirement also applies to the medical and scientific phrases referred to in the advertisement.

The legislator further details that an advertisement of a medical device may not use the image of persons practising or claiming to practise a medical profession, or depict persons presenting the device in a manner suggesting that they practise such a profession.

Furthermore, the advertisement must not contain a direct invitation, addressed to children, to purchase the advertised products. It must not urge parents or other adults to buy the advertised medical devices for their children. Nor may the medical device advertisement apply to devices intended for use by professional users.

AESTHETIC MEDICINE ON THE INTERNET

When browsing social media, we often see advertisements of the aesthetic medicine sector. This advertising is done both by beauty influencers, who promote particular medical services and products as their users, and by professionals (cosmetologists, aesthetic medicine practitioners) who, in order to promote their services, often publish the effect of the treatment performed by posting a ‘before and after’ photo on their social media profiles. Therefore, as a result of the new regulations, people operating on the internet, beauty parlours and aesthetic medicine clinics will have to pay particular attention to ensure that products that are intended to be used by a doctor only do not become the subject of advertising communication targeted at observers and patients.

NEW LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AESTHETIC MEDICINE ADVERTISEMENTS

The Act of 7 April 2022 on medical devices also introduces fines set out in Article 103 for the use of misleading language and signs and for violating the principle of advertising medical devices. According to clause 2 of this article, anyone who advertises medical devices in a manner contrary to Article 7 of Regulation 2017/745, Article 7 of Regulation 2017/746 or Articles 54-60 shall be subject to a fine of up to PLN 2,000,000.

The so-called transition period allows advertisers who have started broadcasting advertisements that do not comply with the requirements of the Act before 1 January 2023 to have six months to bring them in line with the new regulations (until 30 June 2023).

Where the Office President ascertains violations of Article 7 of Regulation 2017/745 or Article 7 of Regulation 2017/746 with respect to advertising or Article 55 or Article 56, the following shall be ordered by way of an administrative decision:

• removal of the violations found, or
• cessation of the publication, broadcasting or performance of the advertising concerned, or
• publication of the issued decision in the places or mass media in which the specific advertisement has been published.

 

 

 

 

REASON FOR INTRODUCTION

 

The recommendations of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK) concerning labelling of promotional content by influencers on social media were developed in order to organise the market for sponsored content on social media, so that internet users get a clear message as to what is an advertisement and what is an objective product review.

 

NEW DEFINITIONS

 

The recommendations of the President of UOKIK include terms that have not been legally defined or whose definitions needed to be updated to fit the discussed issues, i.e.:

 

• Influencer – an author, person operating on the internet, actively running their social media, communicating with their followers. Through their publications they can influence their opinions, decisions or behaviour. An influencer is an entrepreneur if they derive any economic benefit (not only financial) from their online activity and at the same time run an organised business on their own behalf and on a continuous basis. This also applies if the influencer has not registered a business.

 

• Social media – electronically provided services, in particular platforms and websites on which users, after creating an account, can publish content in various forms (text, image, video, audio), as well as add friends or follow other users via a browser or mobile app.

 

• Advertisement – a commercial communication aimed at promoting the sale or paid use of goods or services. Advertisement includes also self-promotion, i.e. the advertising of one’s own products or services. Additionally, commercial communication that is aimed at promoting a brand is also considered an advertisement.

 

• Advertising agencies – entrepreneurs carrying out advertising activities for or on behalf of other entities, which consist in the preparation of an advertisement concept, advertisement management (implementation of the concept, marketing), promotion of products or services. Advertising agencies may also perform other activities, including acting as intermediaries between an advertiser and an influencer (e.g. in sponsorship agreements).

 

• Advertisers – entrepreneurs who order advertising or promotion of their products, services or brands in influencers’ social media in exchange for economic benefits (not only financial).

 

• Observers – people who observe or subscribe to influencers’ social media accounts. The observation does not have to be permanent. They are considered consumers, as their interaction with influencers is not related to their business or professional activity and, based on recommendations and opinions of influencers, they may make decisions regarding, among other things, the purchase of a service or product.

 

LEGAL REGULATIONS

 

Currently, there are no laws that explicitly define the ways in which advertising material should be labelled on social media. However, the law clearly indicates that advertising content must not mislead consumers. With regard to the protection of consumer interests, the following unfair market practices are primarily pointed out:

 

• Misleading omission – Article 6(1) of the Act of 23 August 2007 on counteracting unfair market practices

 

• Surreptitious advertising – Article 7(11) of the Act on counteracting unfair market practices

 

• Act of unfair competition – Article 16(1) item 4 of the Act of 16 April 1993 on counteracting unfair competition

 

COMMERCIAL COOPERATION

 

There are a number of types of commercial cooperation, which differ, among other things, in the way the contract is concluded, the form of remuneration, the advertiser’s impact on the material and the duration of the cooperation. Regardless of these variables, any commercial should be clearly distinguished from neutral information.

 

• Manner of contracting – it does not matter in what form the influencer enters into an agreement with the advertising agency or advertiser for the content to be considered commercial. It is possible to make the relevant arrangements both on paper and during a conversation, email exchange or instant messaging. Under such understood agreement, the influencer receives remuneration in return for publishing commercial content on their social media. In the contract or its annexes, the parties may define the structure and form of the content.

 

• Form of remuneration – it does not matter in what form the influencer receives the economic benefit for the content to be considered commercial. The economic benefit may be in the form of monetary or in-kind remuneration

 

• An increase in sales of the influencer’s own goods or services is also considered a economic benefit.

 

• Advertiser’s impact on the content – it is irrelevant whether the advertiser has any impact on the content for the material to be considered commercial. The advertiser or advertising agency usually sets the requirements for the final structure and form of the publication. They order the influencer to create the material based on a so-called brief or directly accept it before the publication. This must be marked as advertising material. In a situation where neither the advertiser nor the advertising agency has any influence on the material created by the influencer, and the author posts information about a product or service on their social media for remuneration, this should also be marked as advertising material.

 

• Duration of the cooperation – the duration of the cooperation is irrelevant to the recognition of the material presented by the influencer as advertising material.

 

SELF-PROMOTION

 

A special type of commercial content is self-promotion, which is an advertisement of the influencer’s own brand. Self-promotion is when an influencer runs a business or owns shares in a company that is involved in manufacturing, providing services or other activities and advertises it on their social media channels.  Self-promotion also needs to be properly labelled as the advertisement.

 

GIFTS – THE PR PACKAGE

 

The recommendations also recognise communications related to received gifts, i.e. PR packages. These gifts are of small value, the influencer does not have to return them or pay for them. The gifted influencer does not receive a separate remuneration for possible promotion of the gift.  The donor does not have any contract with the influencer in any form and does not order any social media publication about the gift from the influencer. The donor has no influence on the content of the material and does not accept it in any way. It is up to the influencer themselves to decide whether or not to publish the content. If an influencer decides to publish a post on social media about a gift received from a brand, the influencer does not have to label the content as advertising material. It is enough for the influencer to inform their followers that they have received the product as a gift.

 

However, if the brand sends the influencer a PR package again, the influencer is obliged to mark the content regarding such a package as advertising material.

 

METHODS OF LABELLING

 

An author should mark the advertising material they publish in a way that is clear, unambiguous and understandable to any recipient. The labelling should be visible both to their regular observers and to those who become acquainted with their channels for the first time. Observers should be able to recognise the advertising nature of the content at the initial stage of viewing them, on both mobile and desktop devices. An influencer should also inform what brand they are advertising.

 

• In a situation where an influencer is publishing coverage or reviews of an event to which they have received an invitation, they do not need to mark this as advertising material. It is sufficient that they inform their followers that they have received a free invitation. This situation is likely to arise when the material has been created irrespectively of the advertiser’s will and influence.

 

• In a situation where the advertiser has incurred additional costs for the influencer’s participation in the event, the author should marḱ this content as advertising material.
• In a situation where an author receives a product purely for testing in order to post a review on their social media channel and then returns it – they do not need to mark this material as advertising material. It is sufficient that they inform their followers who the product is from and that they received it free of charge and must return it.

 

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection recommends two-tier labelling, i.e. using both the functionality of the platform and labelling on your own (e.g. in the description, in the photo or video, in the narrative of the material).

 

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

 

Incorrect labelling of advertising content may have legal consequences for the author. This applies both to liability under the provisions outlined in this section and to recourse liability.

 

The following legal consequences towards entrepreneurs (influencers, advertising agencies, advertisers) are possible:

 

• Public law consequences – the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection may assert the use of a practice that infringes the collective interests of consumers by an entrepreneur who commits unfair market practices. This applies, inter alia, to the misleading omission concerning the labelling of advertising materials or the use of surreptitious advertising

 

• see Article 24 of the Act of 16 February 2007 on Competition and Consumer Protection

 

• Private law consequences:

 

• Consumers against whom an entrepreneur has used an unfair market practice in connection with the labelling of advertising materials may pursue claims set out in Article 12 of the Act on Counteracting Unfair Market Practices

 

• Entrepreneurs (competitors) with regard to the entrepreneur’s use of an act of unfair competition related to advertising may, in particular, pursue claims set out in Article 18 of the Act on Counteracting Unfair Competition

 

• It is worth noting that initiation of public law actions does not exclude the possibility of initiating private law actions (and vice versa). This means that consumers or competitors may individually pursue claims against entrepreneurs, regardless of possible investigation by the President of the Office of Competition of Consumer Protection.

 

 

Can a subsidiary belong to more than one group of companies? Can a company be a subsidiary of two parent entities? We will try to answer these questions in this article.

When analysing the Accounting Act (hereinafter: “the Act”) in the context of groups of companies and the parent entities’ obligation to draw up consolidated statements, a number of issues may require clarification. First and foremost, one should start by reviewing the definitions of a subsidiary, parent entity and group of companies.

Pursuant to Article 3 sec. 1 item 44 of the Act, a group of companies is defined as a parent entity together with its subsidiaries.

Pursuant to Article 3 sec. 1 item 37 of the Act, a parent entity is a commercial company or a state-owned enterprise that controls a subsidiary and, in particular:

1. a) holds, directly or indirectly, the majority of the total number of votes in the subsidiary’s decision-making body, also on the basis of agreements with other entities or persons entitled to vote and exercising their voting rights in accordance with the will of the parent entity, or
2. b) is a shareholder of a subsidiary and is entitled to govern the financial and operating policies of that subsidiary, independently or by persons or entities designated by it on the basis of an agreement concluded with other persons or entities entitled to vote, possessing, on the basis of the articles of association or the company deed, together with the parent entity, the majority of the total number of votes in the decision making body, or
3. c) is a shareholder of a subsidiary and is entitled to appoint and dismiss the majority of members of the management, supervisory or administrative bodies of that subsidiary, or

(d) is a shareholder of a subsidiary whose more than half of the members of the management, supervisory or administrative bodies in the preceding financial year, during the current financial year and until the preparation of the financial statements for the current financial year are persons appointed to perform such functions as a result of the parent entity’s exercise of its voting rights in the bodies of that subsidiary, unless another entity or person has the rights referred to in items (a), (c) or (e) in relation to that subsidiary, or

1. e) is a shareholder of a subsidiary and is entitled to govern the financial and operating policies of that subsidiary, based on an agreement concluded with that subsidiary, or on the articles of association or the company deed of that subsidiary.

On the other hand, a subsidiary is a commercial company or an entity established and operating under foreign commercial law and controlled by the parent entity (Article 3 sec. 1 item 39 of the Act).

In addition, control over another entity is understood as the ability to govern the financial and operating policies of another entity in order to gain economic benefits from its activities.

In view of the above, it can be seen that the legislator does not exclude a subsidiary’s affiliation to more than one groups of companies, and thus, more than one parent entity. For example, in a limited joint-stock partnership, the parent entity could be either the general partner or the shareholder – depending on the wording of the articles of association. Therefore, there can be two parent entities to choose from.

For this reason, the analysis of which company is the parent entity for the subsidiary should be based primarily on reviewing the provisions of the articles of association or the company deed, and the Code of Commercial Companies. If, after the aforementioned analysis, there are still doubts as to the choice of the parent entity, further steps should be taken. In case of doubt, one should consider how the actual state of interdependence in a group of companies is created – perhaps in practice one company governs the financial and operational policies of another entity. Or, maybe a given entity actually has powers that are not directly indicated in the company deed, the articles of association, or in the Code of Commercial Companies. An inquiry about such facts should ultimately dispel any doubts.

 

LEGAL BASIS

As of Saturday, 17 September 2022, the provisions of the Regulation of the Minister of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) on the records of vehicle drivers violating traffic regulations came into force. The changes include introduction of a maximum penalty of 15 points for the most serious traffic offences. These in particular affect drivers who repeatedly exceed the speed limits and drive under the influence of alcohol.

CANCELLATION OF PENALTY POINTS

Penalty points awarded for violations committed before 17/09/2022 are cancelled as follows:

• after one year has passed from the date of the violation,
• Remember! In two exceptional cases penalty points will not be deleted from your account – if the sum of your temporary penalty points and active penalty points exceeds the limit of 24 points (20 points if it is your first driving licence and you have had it for less than a year),

The issue of penalty points awarded for violations committed on or after 17/09/2022 looks different, as they will be cancelled:

• two years after the date the decision becomes final. If a fine (in the form of a ticket) is imposed for a violation and constitutes the State Budget revenue, or if a ticket is issued by the Road Transport Inspectorate, -> the two-year period starts on the date on which you pay the fine, 
• if a decision on withdrawing your driving licence is made;
• if you are notified of a positive check of your qualifications;
• if the district governor refuses to issue a decision on referring a person for a verification of qualifications or a decision on withdrawing the licence – at the request of the provincial police commander.

THE MSWiA REGULATION LISTS 21 MOST SERIOUS TRAFFIC OFFENCES, FOR WHICH A DRIVER MAY RECEIVE 15 PENALTY POINTS:

The Regulation of the Minister of the Interior and Administration on the records of vehicle drivers violating traffic regulations lists 21 offences for which drivers may receive 15 penalty points at a time. These 21 offences include, among others:

• driving a motor vehicle while drunk, under the influence of alcohol or under the influence of intoxicants;
• failure to offer aid to accident victims;
• bypassing a vehicle that is travelling in the same direction but has stopped to give way to a pedestrian;
• overtaking a vehicle on a pedestrian crossing where traffic is not controlled or immediately before a pedestrian crossing;
• failure to give way to a pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing or a pedestrian entering a pedestrian crossing;
• failure to stop the vehicle when a disabled person using a special sign or a person with evident reduced mobility is crossing the road in order to allow them to cross;
• failure to obey a signal given by a person authorised to control traffic ordering to stop the vehicle, in order to avoid an inspection;
• failure to obey traffic lights;
• failure to obey signals and instructions given by persons authorised to direct traffic and persons authorised to control traffic;
• exceeding the speed limit by more than 70 km/h;
• violating the ban on bypassing lowered barriers or half barriers and entering a crossing when barriers have started to lower or have not been fully lifted;
• carrying more than two children in a vehicle in contravention of the regulations.

RELAPSE

The Regulation of the Minister of the Interior and Administration on the records of vehicle drivers violating traffic regulations also introduces the notion of relapse. After 17 September 2022, drivers who commit the same type of offence again within two years will have to pay a double fine.

Fine rates for speeding relapse:

• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 30 km/h, the fine is PLN 800 (PLN 1,600 in case of relapse);
• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 40 km/h, the fine is PLN 1000 (for repeat offenders – PLN 2000);
• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 km/h, the fine is PLN 1500 (for repeat offenders – PLN 3000);
• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 60 km/h, the fine is PLN 2000 (for repeat offenders – PLN 4000);
• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 70 km/h, the fine is PLN 2500 (for repeat offenders – PLN 5000).

Fine rates in case of relapse other than speeding:

• failure to give priority to a pedestrian – first time: PLN 1,500 (relapse – PLN 3,000);
• breaking the ban on overtaking – first time: PLN 1000 (relapse – PLN 2000);
• overtaking on or before a crossing – first time: PLN 1500 (relapse – PLN 3000);
• failure to maintain caution and causing a threat to road traffic safety whose consequence is an injured pedestrian, cyclist, etc. – first time: PLN 1500 (relapse – PLN 3000);
• bypassing a vehicle that has stopped to give way to a pedestrian – first time: PLN 1500 (relapse – PLN 3000);
• entering a railway track while the barriers are lowered, being lowered or not fully lifted – first time: PLN 2000 (relapse – PLN 4000);
• entering a level crossing with a red signal on or when there is no space on the other side to continue driving – first time: PLN 2000 (relapse – PLN 4000);
• driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or another intoxicant – first time: PLN 2500 (relapse – PLN 5000).

CHANGE IN THE NUMBER OF PENALTY POINTS AWARDED FOR SPEEDING:

Until now, no penalty points were awarded to drivers for exceeding the speed limit by no more than 10km/h. The MSWiA Regulation, however, tightens the rules on awarding penalty points for speeding:

• for exceeding the speed limit by up to 10 km/h, drivers will receive 1 penalty point;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 11 to 15 km/h, drivers will receive 2 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 16 to 20 km/h, drivers will receive 3 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 21 to 25 km/h, drivers will receive 5 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 26 to 30 km/h, drivers will receive 7 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 31 to 40 km/h, drivers will receive 9 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 41 to 50 km/h, drivers will receive 11 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 51 to 60 km/h, drivers will receive 13 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by 61 to 70 km/h, drivers will receive 14 penalty points;
• for exceeding the speed limit by more than 70 km/h, drivers will receive 15 penalty points.