The Extending of the Entrepreneurs Protection Within the Banking Agreements Containing Abusive Clauses

Abstract

By the Act of July 31, 2019, amending certain acts to limit the regulatory burden, Art. 385 (5) of the Polish Civil Code, according to which the provisions relating to the consumer
are contained in Art. 385 (1)-385 (3) of the Civil Code applies to individual entrepreneurs. Thus, the guarantee of the market participant interests protection was extended by recognising as illegal some of the contractual provisions shaping the content of legal relations, both in consumer and economic transactions. This procedure is of particular importance for banking contracts, as from 1 January 2021 all bank counterparties that are not professionally engaged in banking services should be considered as the “weaker” party to the legal relationship, both economically and in terms of experience and knowledge. As a result, additional obligations (informational, formal, guarantee) were imposed on banks towards “business consumers”, which must be met to establish an effective binding contractual
relationship.