| In Principle

Apart from the basic form of running a business, which is a sole proprietorship, foreigners can choose to start a business in the form of a partnership or company. Each of these groups includes different types of corporate forms, and their activities depend on various factors.

Both industry and households will see increased fees in their electricity bills. Meanwhile, the announced relief for energy-intensive industry is still lacking.

The conceptual framework of the data economy also requires an understanding of the division of data into different layers. This may have great legal significance.

First a warning, then possibly repeated fines on investors and owners for illegal use of structures: this is one of the effects of recent changes in the Construction Law.

Fair competition and equal treatment of contractors are the main principles of awarding public contracts, and all actions taken by the contracting authority in preparing and conducting the procedure must comply with these principles. Nonetheless, procurement procedures often raise questions about how these principles should be applied in practice. Some doubts were recently dispelled by the National Appeal Chamber in its ruling of 15 October 2020 (case no. KIO 2104/20).

Compared to other forms of professional activity of an individual (for example working under an employment contract or contract of mandate), individual business activity allows the individual to benefit from a range of forms of income taxation. Thus, before generating their first business revenue in Poland, individuals they should examine their activity to find the most appropriate form of taxation. Below we present the available forms of taxation for business income, with their main advantages and disadvantages.

We are launching a series of articles on the data economy. We use this term to refer collectively to new models of the economy in which the principal role is played by data. Data are becoming an asset in their own right which is more and more often the subject of commercial exchange. This doesn’t mean only personal data. It also, or even primarily, means non-personal data of all sorts, including those generated or gathered by machines, whose value we are only beginning to discover.

A core issue for the data economy is how to define the legal status of data. Can data be the subject of ownership? If not, what rights can be exercised with respect to data? Future models for management of data will depend on the answers to these questions.

Does the sale of replacement parts and accessories for Testarossa cars and used Testarossas qualify as genuine use of the Testarossa trademark? If so, is the mark used only for high-priced luxury sports cars, or for the whole category of cars?

On 23 July 2020, the ten-year dispute over the square packaging of Ritter Sport chocolate ended. The proceedings were held in Germany, but the decision may provide guidance to courts of other states on how to interpret the notion that shape can add significant value to a product.

An optional ground for exclusion from procurement proceedings, breach of an earlier public contract, is limited to three years after occurrence of the event that is basis for the exclusion. But a problem arising in practice is which event should be considered when calculating the three-year period. Termination of the contract by the contractor? Repudiation of the contract by the contracting authority? Or perhaps entry of a judgment for damages for breach of the earlier contract? The answer can be found in the ruling by the National Appeal Chamber of 26 August 2020 (case no. KIO 1781/20).

A creditor has a chance to obtain satisfaction through a fraudulent transfer claim even if the debtor disposed of its assets before the claim arose. The intention to injure future creditors is demonstrated by the foreseeability of insolvency, and thus the debtor’s expectation of becoming insolvent with respect to potential creditors.