Search

The COVID-19 crisis has marked nearly all spheres of our lives. To combat the spread of the virus, the Republic of Poland decided to impose severe restrictions as to the rights and freedoms of citizens and entities without applying the formal extraordinary measures as provided by the Constitution. Businesses have been significantly affected, but it is highly disputable whether they will be compensated by the state. Two compensation regimes are potentially applicable: the one provided for in the Polish Civil Code and the other regulated in the Extraordinary Measures Compensation Law. In both cases, the conditions for the compensation are ambiguous. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to determine the main factual and regulatory issues which might inhibit compensation of COVID-19-related damages.

In consumer e-commerce, personalization of the content of an agreement in accordance with expectations, traits and circumstances of a particular person has become a common practice. In order to adequately address this new phenomenon, it is crucial to determine how the legal system should perceive consumer contracts concluded via the Internet with the use of personalization tools. For this purpose, the European Union perspective is adopted. Peculiarities of personalized agreements are varied. The entrepreneur has access to a vast amount of data on consumers and he is able to use it to his benefit by personalizing means, time and content of communication sent while forming a contractual bond with the consumer. In contrast, the consumer is not familiar with the scope and the utility of the data that the trader is processing. Also, personalization practices are aimed at inspiring trust in the trader, which, in sum, make the consumer especially exposed to manipulation. As a result, the asymmetry between the parties deepens. Personalization can be, therefore, perceived as a marketing technique. However, due to its impact on the contractual relationship, it is justified to explore also whether it could be treated as a new type of contract or an emerging contractual model. The analysis suggests that the phenomenon should be considered as another step in the evolution of consumer contracts — personalization, to a certain extent, supersedes standardization of mass turnover in the online environment. The following article is a part of the research conducted within the framework of project no. 2016/21/N/HS5/00167, ‘Personalized agreements in the light of civil law’, grant financed by the Polish National Science Centre.

Stosowanie mechanizmów personalizacji pozwala dystrybutorowi ubezpieczeń na obniżenie kosztów poszukiwań i dostosowanie oferowanego produktu ubezpieczeniowego do potrzeb, cech i sytuacji każdego klienta. Niniejszy tekst służy zbadaniu, w jaki sposób i komu należy przypisać odpowiedzialność, gdy proces personalizacji produktu ubezpieczeniowego nie skutkuje wyborem przez klienta optymalnego produktu. W części wprowadzającej artykuł analizuje typowe zastosowania nowych technologii pozwalających na personalizację umów ubezpieczenia. Następnie analizie podlegają związki między stosowaniem mechanizmów personalizacyjnych a wykonywaniem obowiązków informacyjnych dystrybutorów produktów ubezpieczeniowych. W dalszej części artykułu omówiono zakres czynników, za które dystrybutor ubezpieczeń ponosi odpowiedzialność w wypadku stosowania narzędzi personalizujących w kontaktach z klientami. W artykule reprezentowana jest teza, że oferowanie personalizacji produktów ubezpieczeniowych online należy uznać za udzielanie porad w rozumieniu art. 2 (1) pkt 15 dyrektywy Unii Europejskiej w sprawie dystrybucji ubezpieczeń (IDD). Z perspektywy prawa konsumenckiego artykuł formułuje uzasadnienie odpowiedzialności dystrybutora ubezpieczeń za niewłaściwe personalizowanie umowy ubezpieczeniowej. The use of personalization mechanisms should allow the insurance distributor to reduce exploration costs and adjust the offered insurance product to the needs, features, and situation of each individual client. This study seeks to examine how liability should be allocated when the process of the personalization of an insurance product does not result in the client’s choice of an optimal product. First, we identify the typical uses of new technologies allowing for an adjustment of insurance contracts. Second, we analyze the interplay between their application and the legal obligations of insurance product distributors. Subsequently, the paper discusses the scope of factors the insurance distributor is liable for when using personalizing tools in contacts with clients. We submit that offering an online personalization of insurance products ought to be regarded as being equivalent to providing advice under Art. 2, Sec. 1, Point 15 of the European Union Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD). From the consumer’s perspective, our analysis makes the case for the insurance distributor’s liability for mispersonalization of an insurance contract.

The regulation on defects of consent loses its usefulness and should be replaced by special regulations, more suited to the requirements of consumer e-commerce. The study’s main objective is to verify whether, due to the evolution of the concept of the declaration of intent, the emergence of non-individual consumer protection instruments, and technological developments the code regulation of defects in the declaration of will remains useful in the case of contracts concluded by consumers on the Internet. The impact of the development of the Internet environment on the applicability and effectiveness of this traditional private institution is analyzed. Mechanisms that, in practice, displace the regulation of vice of consent are indicated.

The paper examines the way Polish courts apply EU private international law (EU PIL) rules in the disputes concerning online context. The analysis seeks, in particular, to better understand the patterns recurring in the judicial reasoning and to map the typical circumstances of internet-related disputes pled before Polish courts. The paper attempts to cluster the existing case law and to trace the use made of EU PIL and CJEU decisions by Polish judges. It also aims to identify how the courts perceive specificity of internet-related disputes from the perspective of conflict of laws and how they understand specific goals of EU PIL (especially consumer protection). The text delves also into the cases where – despite encountering transnational elements – courts did not address conflict of laws issues. It attempts to indicate the most common instances of such omission and hence, to elucidate further the possible barriers to full application of EU PIL.

The purpose of this article is to identify the opportunities and risks of applying big data technology to regulate the information duties of entrepreneurs in business to consumer relationships. The proposed volatile regulatory framework is assessed from various perspectives, considering research on consumer behaviour, doctrine insights, broader legal contexts, and possible after-effects. As a result, the possibility of using personalization to tailor obligation duties is questioned. Nevertheless, consequences of consumer profiling from a civil law perspective require the immediate attention of legal doctrine and EU legislators. Résumé: L’objectif du présent article est d’identifier les opportunités et les risques de l’application de la technologie ‘big data’ pour encadrer les obligations d’ information des entrepreneurs dans les relations B2C. Le cadre réglementaire proposé est examiné sous des angles différents, en prenant en compte les résultats des recherches menées en matière de comportements des consommateur, les réflexions issues de la doctrine, d’autres environnements juridiques et les effets secondaires possibles. Par conséquent, la possibilité d’utiliser la personnalisation pour façonner les obligations est discutée. Toutefois, les conséquences du profilage des consommateurs dans une perspective civiliste requiert l’attention immédiate de la doctrine et du législateur européen.