POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Xawery Konarski, Traple Konarski Podrecki & Partners
10. Social Media 10.1 Laws and Regulations for Social Media In Poland, there are no separate regulations for social networking sites, and no codes of eth - ics have been adopted in this respect either. Therefore, the provisions of the Digital Services Act apply primarily to the administrators of such sites. Under Polish civil law, a contract for the use of social networking sites may be concluded by a person who is at least 13 years old. A similar age limit has been adopted in the Data Protection Act, supplementing the GDPR. The largest number of court cases involve claims related to violations of personal rights (such as defamation on online websites) and copyright law (copyright infringements through the dis - tribution of content without the consent of the entitled entities).
10.2 Regulatory and Compliance Issues At present, the activities of social networks are supervised by two regulators – the President of the Office for Personal Data Protection and the President of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection. After the enactment of the amendment to the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means (1st half of 2025), their activi - ties will also be regulated by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications, who is to be responsible for supervising compliance with the DSA regulations. All of the above offices can impose administra - tive sanctions, including fines. The most well-known case taken against social networking sites this past year was the decision of the President of the Office for Personal Data Protection, issued on 8 August 2024. In a wide - ly reported case, the Polish DPA obliged Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to stop displaying false advertisements using real data and the image of journalist and presenter Ms Omena Mensah on Facebook and Instagram in the territory of the Republic of Poland for three months. The order, in this case, was issued on the basis of Article 60(1) of the GDPR and Article 70(1) and (2) of the Personal Data Protection Act.
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