POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tomasz Konopka, Katarzyna Randzio-Sajkowska, Katarzyna Stradomska-Balcerzyk and Michał Zieliński, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
3.6 Financial Record-Keeping Business entities are obliged to keep financial records, and, in the case of commercial law companies, their financial records and statements are subject to man - datory examination by an independent certified audi - tor. Keeping inaccurate financial records constitutes a crime under fiscal criminal law. Inaccurate financial records are understood as records containing false entries. With regard to criminal liability, under fiscal criminal law it is possible to hold a management board member liable even if financial record-keeping was not included in their responsibilities. Such a board member will be subject to criminal liability for fiscal crimes committed as part of the operations of the company they manage. Importantly, a management board member may even be subject to liability under fiscal criminal law for crimes committed at a time when they did not hold this position. 3.7 Cartels and Criminal Competition Law Cartels and other competition deeds are defined and regulated under administrative law, in particular the Protection of Competition and Consumers Act, and are subject to fines. Furthermore, the CC provides for liability for hindering a public tender. The law states that anyone who, in order to achieve material benefit, prevents or obstructs a public tender, or acts in con - cert with another entity to the detriment of the owner of property or an entity or institution for which the tender is to be held, is liable to imprisonment for up to three years. As from 1 October 2023, the CC provides a wider range of application of the provisions regarding obstructing or thwarting the tenders or public pro - curement procedure. Currently, the CC protects all kinds of tenders, irrespective of the entity organisers thereof. Before that date, the CC protected only public tenders. Moreover, commission of the above offence in order to gain financial or material benefit results in an aggravated penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to eight years. Pursuant to the CC, whoever takes on intercession in settling a matter in exchange for a material or personal benefit or its promise by claiming to have influence
in a domestic or foreign organisational entity utilising public funds, inducing another person’s belief in the existence of such an influence, or assuring another person of the existence of such an influence, is sub - ject to a penalty of deprivation of liberty for between six months and eight years. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) points out in its guidance that it is illegal to: • co-fix wages (wage-fixing) – agreements on mini - mum, maximum, or fixed wage levels; bonuses, or other remuneration components; • enter into “no-poaching agreements” – agreements to prohibit or restrict active or passive solicitation of competitors’ employees; • jointly agree other terms and conditions of employ - ment – eg, the number of days of remote working, which affect the attractiveness of job offers. This is a new approach towards this matter and, besides the “traditional” scope of the OCCP’s investi - gations, the OCCP initiated several investigations into entities engaged in such agreements. The financial consequences could be very severe: • up to 10% of turnover; and • up to PLN2 million for the managers responsible for collusion. 3.8 Consumer Criminal Law The Act on Competition and Consumer Protection (ACCP) provides for prohibition of practices that are harmful to the collective interests of consumers. The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection may impose on an entrepreneur a financial penalty amounting to no more than 10% of the turno - ver generated in the financial year preceding the year in which the penalty is imposed if the entrepreneur, even unintentionally, concluded an agreement with a consumer including the illicit contractual provisions or harmed the collective interest of consumers by proposing to such consumers the purchase of finan - cial services that do not correspond to the needs of these consumers as ascertained on the basis of the information available to the entrepreneur in the scope of these consumers’ features, or proposing the pur -
238 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook