Journal of Business Law 02/2021

Specifying the country of manufacture of a product, most often realized using the formula "Made in", is an important criterion for purchasing decisions. Therefore, it constitutes information that must be made available to the consumer to ensure his protection on the market. EU law follows this assumption in the light of its general desiderata. However, at the level of the applicable law, it has not been able to establish either a clear and precise disclosure of the origin of the product or such a universally binding requirement. The deficit in this regard, although to a lesser extent, even concerns food. Providing information about the origin of other products is, with a few exceptions, almost completely arbitrary, as to the method. Moreover, entrepreneurs considering an additional relevant factor in this matter, which is the general prohibition of misleading consumers, remain in this legal situation in uncertainty as to the compliance with the law of the adopted indication of the origin of the goods they offer.

The issue of copyright exhaustion has repeatedly been directly or indirectly the subject of the jurisprudence of national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Due to changes in the digital markets, the purpose of this article is to make a legal assessment of the disposability of digital keys for computer games, taking into account, in particular, the issue of copyright exhaustion and posing the question of whether it requires a change of legal approach. The article also touches upon legal issues concerning antitrust regulations, geoblocking, and liability of digital distribution platforms.

The first part of this article is about banks` condiction claim regarding the reimbursement for non-contractual use of capital provided by banks in the situation of acknowledgement of invalidity (ex tunc) of credit agreement. The aim of the article is to show — based on the analysis of the existing judicature — that if a credit agreement is declared invalid ex tunc, the bank, as part of its condition, is entitled to reimbursement for noncontractual use of the capital by the borrower. This issue arose on the basis of the jurisprudence concerning mortgage loan agreements denominated or indexed to a foreign currency. This approach to the subject is the result of the fact that the problem which is the subject of this paper has been created on the basis of court case law (where it was "initiated" in a way by the judgment of the Court of Appeals in Białystok on 20 February 2020; reference: I ACa 635/19) and is a strictly practical problem; thus, its solution should be drawn from the hitherto judicial output. This article discusses the doubts that have arisen as well as proposes specific solutions.

This contribution concerns the issue of the impact of the adjustment for outstanding claims on the method of registration of business revenues and costs. The subject of the analysis undertaken in this study is therefore the adjustment for outstanding claims regulated by the Personal Income Tax Act, Corporate Income Tax Act and a Flat-rate Income Tax on Certain Revenues Earned by Natural Persons Act. The purpose of this study is to show that the adjustment for outstanding claims changes classification of revenues and costs from business activities. An objective research difficulty is to indicate the moment when the right or obligation arises. Therefore, the coherence and completeness of regulations governing the adjustment for outstanding claims in income taxes was examined.

A whistleblower — "a person blowing a whistle" — the Polish language lacks a word to precisely express the meaning of that term. Procedures signaling irregularities are part of the organizational culture and have been known in the world for a long time. The activity of international organizations (UN, Council of Europe and European Union) in the process of creating regulations regarding whistleblower protection has also been witnessed for some time. Unfortunately, the Polish legislator has not taken effective measures yet to regulate the position of whistleblowers. The current legislation in this area is sectoral, very selective and limited, resulting in little activity in reporting irregularities. The main objective of this article is to determine the status of whistleblowers in the Polish legal order in the context of provisions of the Directive (EU) 2019/1937, under which Member States are obliged to implement its provisions into their legal orders until 17 December 2023. Selected acts of the Polish law and draft laws that contain regulations on the status of whistleblowers are discussed. In the background of the considerations, the Author also points to selected acts of international law and European Union law.

Recently, the legislator amending the Act of 15.09.2000 Kodeks spółek handlowych (Commercial Companies Code) (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 505, as amended), introduced a new, previously unknown type of company with share capital — a simple joint-stock company. When regulating it, among others the documentary form of shares was abandoned and the digitization of recording of shares (including their turnover) in the register of shareholders was provided for. Keeping the register of a simple joint-stock company was also enabled for notaries and the principle of constitutionality of entries made therein was introduced. However, new solutions in this area cannot be considered as encouraging to trading security. The purpose of the article is to draw attention to the fundamental doubts raised by the new regulation, in particular in the aspect of its impact on the activities of notaries performing activities related to keeping registers of shareholders of simple joint-stock companies.

This article was devoted to the scientific conference "One hundred years of Polish commercial law" and the ceremony of presenting Professor Andrzej Kidyba with the jubilee book on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his scientific work. The ceremony was divided into two parts: the conference part and the jubilee celebrations. In the course of the conference papers were delivered by: prof. dr h.c. Józef Frąckowiak (University of Wrocław) — "The place of commercial law in the system of law and methods of its implementation", Prof. Wojciech Popiołek (University of Silesia in Katowice) — "Commercial law companies i.e. companies under the law which does not exist" and Prof. Dr. h.c. Bernd Oppermann (Dean of the Faculty of Law, Leibnitz Universität Hannover) — "Challenges of Commercial Law in a Comparative Perspective". The ceremony began with a laudation in honour of Prof. Andrzej Kidyba, delivered by Prof. Wojciech Katner, PhD, of the University of Łódź, who introduced the personality of the Jubilarian. The jubilee book entitled "One hundred years of Polish commercial law" was presented by its editors and the staff of the Chair of Economic and Commercial Law, Maria Curie- Skłodowska University in Lublin. After the presentation of the book the Jubilarian himself gave a speech entitled "My Alphabet — a little confession — not my will".