BBS NEWS
9 July 2025 • Autor: Kancelaria Brysiewicz Bokina i Wspólnicy
BBS NEWS is a monthly information series on law and business and legal aspects of social change. We present the latest news, amendments and key topics presented in the form of, short and informative texts.
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DECEMBER 2023
- Hate speech and legal consequences.
- Christmas Eve shopping moved!
- Compulsory third-party insurance for electric scooters?
- New types of offences in the Criminal Code.
- Changes to inheritance law
1. Shopping Sunday on Christmas Eve has been moved!
The Act on Restriction of Trade on Sundays and Holidays and on Certain Other Days, provides for two main exceptions to the restriction of trade on Sundays.
- The first – a waiver of the trade ban for the establishments specified therein,
- while the second lists the Sundays on which the trade ban does not apply and these include the two Sundays preceding the first day of Christmas. This year it is 17.12 and, as originally planned, 24.12, which is Christmas Eve.
As a result, the Sejm passed a bill to amend the law on the restriction of trade on Sundays and public holidays, it was brought by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and envisages moving the trading Sunday from 24 December (Christmas Eve) to 10 December 2023.
The biggest doubt was that moving the shopping Sunday from 24 December to 10 December would come with all the additional restrictions. This would have meant that shops on Sunday 10 December could only be open until 2pm, as is usually the case on Christmas Eve.
On Monday 27 November, the Sejm’s Economy and Development Committee rejected the government’ s proposal and instead accepted the MP’s Poland 2050 proposal, which excludes an hourly limit on Sunday 10 December.
Author: Maria Wyszyńska-Dawgul, Legal Assistant
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2. Hate speech – legal consequences.
The actions of a hater encountered on the Internet should be reported to the website administrator, providing the hater’s IP address. In addition, we can ask the website administrator to remove content that is offensive to us.
We can also report the incident to the police or the public prosecutor’s office by filing a verbal or written complaint, and take legal action and formally file a criminal complaint.
The provisions of the Criminal Code regulate the subject of hate speech. First of all, it should be noted that hate speech should be classified as a crime.
If the perpetrator humiliates another person through their behaviour, they will not go unpunished.
- According to Article 212 § 1 of the Criminal Code “Whoever accuses another person, group of persons, institution, legal person or organisational unit without legal personality of such conduct or characteristics which may humiliate them in public opinion or expose them to loss of trust necessary for a given position, profession or type of activity, shall be subject to a fine or restriction of liberty.
- Paragraph 2 of this provision states that ‘if the perpetrator commits the act referred to in paragraph 1 by means of mass communication, they shall be subject to a fine, restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to one year.’
The consequences of stressing hejt are also indicated by Article 216 of the Penal Code.
- According to Article 216. § 1 of the Penal Code, “whoever insults another person in his presence or even in his absence, but in public or with the intention that the insult should reach that person, shall be subject to a fine or the penalty of restriction of liberty.
- In accordance with paragraph 2 of the aforementioned provision, “whoever insults another person by means of mass communication shall be liable to a fine, a restriction of liberty or a deprivation of liberty of up to one year”.
Insult consists primarily in the use of vulgar and insulting words, the purpose of which is to humiliate, insult and ridicule the other person. As indicated by § 1 of Article 216 of the Penal Code, insult may be directed both directly and indirectly at the insulted person.
The heckling may also be considered a criminal threat under Article 190 of the Penal Code
- “Whoever threatens another person with committing a criminal offence to his/her detriment or to the detriment of a person close to him/her, if the threat arouses in the person to whom it was addressed or whom it concerns a well-founded fear that it will be fulfilled, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years.”
As well as offences under Article 190a of the Penal Code, so-called stalking
- “Whoever, by persistent harassment of another person or a person close to him or her, arouses in him or her, justified by the circumstances, a feeling of threat, humiliation or anguish or significantly violates his or her privacy, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty from 6 months to 8 years.”
In addition, in a situation where the hate speech is racist, it will constitute the offence of public insult on the grounds of national, ethnic or racial affiliation under Article 257 of the Penal Code.
On the basis of the above-mentioned provisions, it should be pointed out that a person who uses hate speech is liable to a fine, restriction and imprisonment.
Author: Emilia Skibowska, Legal Assistant
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3. electric scooters with compulsory third party liability?
On 23 December 2023, an amendment to Directive 2009/103/EC on civil liability insurance for motor vehicles and the enforcement of insurance against such liability will enter into force.
Directive 2021/2118 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2021 aims to strengthen the protection of victims of road accidents. However, rumours about the obligation for users to purchase third-party liability insurance and comprehensive insurance are not true.
However, if the law in Poland were to change in the near future, the obligation to provide insurance would rest with the service provider and not with users. Currently, in Poland, insurance for scooters can only be purchased voluntarily, as they fall within the definition of a vehicle but do not meet the requirements applicable to motor vehicles.
Author: Filip Koryciński, Legal Assistant
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4. New types of offences in the Criminal Code
On 1 October 2023, an amendment to the Criminal Code came into force, covering both the general part of the code and the special part, which includes new types of offences.
One of these is added to Article 148(5) of the Criminal Code, according to which preparation for murder is punishable by imprisonment of between 2 and 15 years.
Another new crime, related to the supplementing of the punishability of preparation for murder, is accepting an order to kill a person in exchange for a financial or personal benefit (Article 148a, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code). This act is also punishable by imprisonment for a term of between 2 and 15 years. According to paragraph 2 of the above provision, a person who, before the initiation of criminal proceedings, discloses to the law enforcement authorities the person or persons who ordered the murder and the relevant circumstances of the act committed shall not be punished for this offence. The criminalisation of ordering a murder cannot be equated with the criminalisation of the intent to murder, as it constitutes a change in the external world (and is therefore an act) consisting in the fact that the person accepting the order manifests their willingness to carry out the order to the person giving the order, thereby fulfilling the elements of the offence. The social harmfulness of this act stems from the agreement concluded between the above-mentioned parties.
Author: Julia Cichowska, Legal Assistant
You can read more about the amendment to the Penal Code in terms of the addition of new offences here >>
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5. Changes in inheritance law
On 15 November 2023, amendments to inheritance law came into force. These include:
- simplification of the procedure for rejecting an inheritance on behalf of minor children,
- restriction of the circle of statutory heirs in the so-called third inheritance group, and
- extension of the list of grounds for disqualification from inheritance.
Simplification of the procedure for rejecting an inheritance on behalf of minor children, which assumes that it will be possible to reject an inheritance on behalf of minor children without the prior consent of the guardianship court.
Until now, parents had to obtain the consent of the guardianship court before making a declaration of rejection of inheritance on behalf of a child. Now, it will be sufficient for a parent to make a declaration before a notary public or in court. However, the new rules do not apply to situations where a child is entitled to inherit in the first instance after one of their parents, or where the other parent with parental authority does not consent to the renunciation of the inheritance – in such cases, the consent of the court will still be required.
Consent will be issued not by the guardianship court, as has been the case to date, but by the probate court, unless proceedings to confirm the acquisition of the inheritance have not yet been initiated. Importantly, for the duration of the proceedings to confirm the acquisition of the inheritance, the six-month period for submitting the declaration will be suspended.
The provisions simplifying the procedure for rejecting an inheritance on behalf of minor children will also apply to inheritances opened before 15 November 2023, if the deadline for submitting a declaration of acceptance or rejection of the inheritance has not expired before the date of entry into force of the amendments.
The restriction of the circle of statutory heirs applies to the so-called third group of heirs – the testator’s grandparents and their descendants. The previous provisions assumed that if one of the testator’s grandparents did not survive the opening of the inheritance, their share of the inheritance would pass to their descendants. From 15 November 2023, the inheritance of descendants of grandparents will be limited to their children (uncles and aunts of the testator) and grandchildren (cousins of the testator). In the absence of children and grandchildren, the inheritance will be taken over by the municipality in which the testator lived before his or her death.
The restriction on the circle of statutory heirs will apply to estates opened after 15 November 2023.
Extension of the list of grounds for disqualification from inheritance Pursuant to Article 928 of the Civil Code, there is a closed list of grounds for disqualifying an heir from inheritance. Under the new wording, the list has been expanded, and an heir may be deemed unworthy of inheritance if they:
- persistently evaded paying maintenance to the testator as determined by a court ruling, settlement or agreement;
- persistently evaded the obligation to care for the testator, in particular arising from parental authority, guardianship, acting as a foster parent, the marital obligation of mutual assistance or the obligation of mutual respect and support between parent and child.
The new grounds for disqualification from inheritance will be available if the testator died after 15 November 2023.
Author: Zuzanna Ciesiołkiewicz, Legal Assistant
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