The author examines the amendment to the Polish Civil Code related to exploitation (Art. 388 of the Civil Code). He presents its genesis, examples of solutions in other countries, and model rules of European private law (DCFR) applied in the situation of non-equivalence of services and the protection of the weaker party against exploitation.
The author includes recently adopted additional premises for exploitation, such as ‘lack of discernment with regard to the subject of the contract’. The author introduces the presumption of a gross disproportion between the services of the contract parties when the value of the service provided by one party at the moment of conclusion of the contract exceeds the value of the reciprocal service at least twice. Additionally, the author discusses the extension of deadlines for commencing court proceedings to protect the weaker party and a list of rights, such as the right to demand a change of the service value due to an inadequate contract or even its dissolution. In conclusion the author presented an assessment of new solutions. The conducted critical analysis includes a list of cases that can be qualified as exploitation and the relationship between exploitation and other legal concepts protecting the weaker market participant (abusive contractual clauses).