Information Obligations and Disinformation of Consumers: Polish Law Report

Abstract

The chapter discusses the Polish legal framework, which aims to empower consumers through information and protect them against disinformation. It presents the perspective of one of the Central and Eastern European countries, in which the development of consumer law, for the most part, took place after the economic and political transformation post-1989 and was profoundly affected by the later EU accession. The chapter examines national legal provisions implementing key European directives on consumer protection such as Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts, Directive 2005/29/EC concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices and Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights and sheds light on the relevant enforcement practice. It draws attention to the instances, where applicable domestic law goes beyond or departs from the European model, beginning with the definition of a ‘consumer’ set out in the Polish Civil Code. The discussion of the crosscutting issues, such as pre-contractual disclosure duties and transparency in advertising, is subsequently complemented with the sector-specific insights on financial and digital markets.