Consumer protection under Polish private law

Abstract

This article discusses the provisions of Polish private law that grants protection to consumers. Particular attention is paid to contract law, but the impact of public law regulations for the provisions of civil law is also taken into consideration. The author presents a number of legal instruments used by Polish law in order to protect consumers in their dealings with merchants and analyzes the main features of consumer protection law in Poland. The influence of European legislation on Polish regulations is also discussed. It goes without saying that Polish consumer protection legislation has to be in line with EU directives. As is known, the protection of consumers plays an important role in EU legislation. The Polish lawmaker has the duty to implement European directives properly and timely into national law. Many Polish regulations regarding consumer protection seem to be a certain kind of translation of European directives. This is the simplest but probably the riskiest method of transposing EU law because it may lead to inconsistencies with national regulations. Although sometimes it seems to be forced by a tight timeline. At the same time, the general competence of the European Union for enacting consumer protection law as a part of civil law is lacking. This is due to the fact that the six founding Member States of the European Economic Union deemed law of contracts as part of the European Treaties to be redundant, since the legal systems of the states — founders of the Union, all based on Roman Law, should already provide a mutual understanding. It is obvious that the consumer needs protection in his/her dealings with merchants as he/she is a weaker party to the transaction. This weakness stems mainly from a lack of information and poor bargaining power. The consumer will never be a real partner in negotiations with a bank, a utility company or an airline.