The Act on Out-of-court Consumer Dispute Resolution was passed by the Sejm on 23 September. Its main purpose is to regulate the rules on which public (e.g. Trading Standards Authority, Financial Ombudsman) as well as private (e.g. Bank Arbitrator) entities conducting proceedings in out-of-court consumer dispute resolution cases act (“Proceedings”). The new regulation will specify their obligations and rules of conducting Proceedings, and will also establish a requirement for them to be entered in a special new register kept by the President of the OCCP.

The legislator has restricted the scope of application of the Act’s provisions to consumer disputes between a consumer residing in Poland or another EU member state and a company with its registered office in Poland. Specific categories of proceedings have been excluded from the Act, notably complaint proceedings, consideration of consumer complaints by a company, direct negotiations between the consumer and the company, as well as disputes concerning services of a non-economic kind, rendered in the general interest.

Under the new rules, Proceedings will in principle be started at the consumer’s request. A company will only be able to instigate Proceedings if this is provided for in the regulations on the basis of which the entity entitled to conduct the Proceedings is acting (“regulations”).

The Proceedings will in principle be gratuitous. The regulations will be able to anticipate the possibility of charging consumers fees, but on condition that their total amount does not significantly make access to the Proceedings difficult for the consumer. The amount of the fees charged will be estimated at the stage of registering an entity. However, the provision in question does not rule out the possibility of the consumer being charged the costs of actions taken at his or her request during the Proceedings (e.g. the costs of appointing an expert). Whether the entity entitled to conduct the Proceedings will be able to impose a binding decision on the parties depends on the parties being informed about the binding character of the decision and their consent to submit to it.

Finally, it is worth adding that the legislator has made it possible for Proceedings to be conducted both in paper form and electronically. Only in exceptional cases will it be permissible to obligate the parties or their representatives to appear in person. It is also worth drawing attention to a regulation by virtue of which instigating Proceedings will interrupt the period of limitation for the claim being the subject of the dispute.

On 21 October 2016 the Act was passed by the Senate. After being signed by the President, it will come into force for the most part two months after the day on which it is published in the Journal of Laws.