POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Szymon Gogulski, Marek Oleksyn and Damian Ludwiniak, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
2.6 Environmental Claims The regulations pertaining specifically to environmen - tal claims and greenwashing are of interest to the EU legislature. Directive 2024/825 of 28 February 2024 has been adopted and awaits its transposition by EU member states (by September 2026). Such practices are already subject to the general provisions of the UCL and the UMPL and shall be assessed as poten - tially misleading advertising and actions that are mis - leading to consumers. 2.7 Disclosures Polish law expressly prohibits any hidden advertising, which is understood as: • a statement that encourages the purchase of goods or services and – at the same time – creates the impression of neutral information (UCL); or • the use of journalistic content in mass media to promote a product, where a business has paid for that promotion, and this promotion is not clearly indicated through the content, images, or sounds that are easily recognisable by the consumer (UMPL). 2.8 Other Regulated Claims Under the UMPL, which transposes EU Directive 2005/29, one of the market practices that is con - sidered misleading and unfair in any circumstances is the presentation of a product as “gratis”, “free”, “without charge” or similar if the consumer has to pay any amount except for the direct costs incurred in responding to the marketing practice or in collecting or delivering the product. References to products being “natural” or “organic” are also subject to various market-specific regula - tions. For example, under EU Regulation 2018/848 of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products, a product shall be regarded as bearing terms referring to organic production where, in the labelling, advertising material or commercial docu - ments, such a product, its ingredients or feed materi - als used for its production are described in terms sug - gesting to the purchaser that the product, ingredients or feed materials have been produced in accordance with this Regulation. In particular, the terms listed in Annex IV of this EU Regulation and their derivatives
and diminutives, such as “bio” and “eco”, whether alone or in combination, may be used throughout the EU and in any language listed in that Annex for the labelling and advertising of products referred to in Arti - cle 2 (1) that comply with this Regulation. Irrespective of this, general rules concerning fair advertising, arising from the UCL and UMPL, apply to any type of claim, such as those related to natural or country of origin. 3. Limitations and Special Laws 3.1 Representation and Stereotypes in Advertising Under the UCL, advertising that appeals to con - sumers’ emotions by causing fear or drawing on the superstitions or credulity of children is considered unfair and is expressly prohibited. 3.2 Children Under Polish regulations, any advert targeted at chil - dren must not: • appeal to customers’ feelings by creating fear or exploiting superstition or children’s credulity (eg, containing an element of longing for parents, a need for acceptance among peers or a need to “rebel” against the dictates of parents and educa - tors); or • include a direct appeal to children to purchase advertised products or to persuade parents or other adults to buy the advertised products for them. The Advertising Council has prepared Annex 3 of the Advertising Commercial Code – the Charter on the Protection of Children in Advertising. This document sets out the conditions that should be met so that the interests of children (particularly those under 12 years of age) are properly protected in marketing communi - cations (www.radareklamy.pl). Broadcast programmes targeted at children can - not contain product placement or be interrupted by commercials. Children’s programmes should not be accompanied by commercial messages relating to
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