More rights for consumers in court proceedings. Promissory note agreements subject to ex officio review.

The Polish Parliament (Sejm) enacted on 24 June an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, which supplements consumer protection provisions, including issues related to disputes over payment orders based on promissory notes, and also expands the catalogue of unfair competition practices.

The Ministry of Justice was the author of the amendment project. The main aim of the introduced changes is the need to align the transferability of promissory notes in consumer transactions with procedural law provisions. Since an entrepreneur, when initiating court proceedings based on a promissory note issued by a consumer, will be required to attach the principal agreement securing the claim evidenced by the promissory note along with the statement of claim, without changes in substantive law, the court demanding such an agreement from a third party would at least be burdensome. According to the Ministry of Justice, enforceability of the obligations imposed both on the entrepreneur and on the court should be ensured already at the stage of creating rights and obligations arising from the promissory note.

According to information on the government’s website, the project aligns Polish law with European Union consumer protection regulations. The new solutions will enable submitting procedural documents, while preserving deadlines, at any postal operator’s branch providing universal services. The regulations regarding applications for legal aid have also been clarified.

Ex officio control

Under the current legal framework, Polish law did not provide for control of the agreement underpinning a claim directed against a consumer arising from a consumer credit agreement secured by a promissory note.

As reported by the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, the proposed changes will ease requirements in this respect and, moreover, oblige courts to verify, ex officio, the agreement on which the claims secured by a promissory note are based, with regard to unfair clauses. Thanks to these new solutions, consumers and other parties in civil proceedings will be able to enjoy a comparable level of protection of their rights throughout the EU.

Key solutions include:

• Submitting a procedural document – in the form of a registered letter – at the branch of any postal operator in Poland will be equivalent to filing it with the court. This will guarantee the delivery of sent documents to the court within an appropriate and predictable timeframe and will enable compliance with procedural deadlines.
• Changes favourable to consumers – debtors – have been introduced. If a consumer is sued on the basis of a promissory note they issued, for example to a bank, the court will be required to examine ex officio the agreement that formed the basis for issuing the promissory note with respect to unfair provisions.
• Additionally, the consumer in such a dispute will benefit from an extended deadline to raise objections (up to one month within Poland), and the court fee for the consumer’s objections will not exceed PLN 750.
• A person applying for legal aid will be able to obtain reimbursement of the costs incurred for translating documents necessary to consider the application for legal aid.