Journal of Business Law 08/2021

The fourth industrial revolution, Economy 4.0 and Finance 4.0 are facts. Technological changes in the context of finance have resulted in a more active application of artificial intelligence, machine learning and algorithms for product ranges and services aimed at individual clients. Examples of applying AI within the financial sector are automated creditworthiness assessment and financial advice (robo-advice). The article presents these areas from a legal and economic perspective. The wider application of algorithms within the financial sector requires a non-conventional approach by regulators in order not to over-regulate this new and promising segment of the financial services market.

The study focuses on the legal status of publicly accessible internal roads not included in any of the categories of public roads, the legal separation of which is questioned. As a consequence, it happens that a private law entity is not only obliged to build publicly accessible roads but also to maintain them later, which is an example of de facto expropriation. And such a disproportion is unacceptable in the rule of law, which has been confirmed in the jurisprudence of the ECHR, whose theses are still ignored in Polish law. The source of the problem is the formal rather than material definition of public roads. Meanwhile, it is the latter perspective that makes it possible to understand the essence of internal roads that perform the same function as public roads. The article presents the thesis that whether a road is a public road or an internal road is determined not only by the formal classification to a given category of public roads, but also by its actual use.

The aim of the article is to research the issue of majority shareholder's liability for damages inflicted on the company. The author discusses the duty of loyalty and indicates its breach as the basis for the shareholder's liability for damages towards the company. The article presents the issue both from the theoretical and practical side. The author presents the concept of interpretation of the provisions on derivative action (actio pro socio), pointing out that shareholders can claim damages from other shareholders on its basis.

The main purpose of the article is an analysis of the knowledge of business managers in selected aspects of amended bankruptcy and restructuring law. The nature of the article is both theoretical and empirical. In the first part, the authors characterized insolvency law and its functions, and presented selected principles of bankruptcy law. As part of the empirical analysis, the authors conducted extensive primary research. The study was conducted using the CATI interview method on an effective sample of 389 entrepreneurs (owners/members of the Management Board) from the segment of large and medium-sized Polish enterprises. The subjective assessments of respondents regarding the scope and premises of liability of management board members as well as the competences and obligations of entities in bankruptcy/restructuring proceedings have been the main subject of the authors' interest. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that the surveyed managers mostly have knowledge of the premises for bankruptcy and the possibility of avoiding liability for the company's obligations. However, there are significant gaps in knowledge in other research areas. The conclusions of the study indicate that due to the intentions of the legislator pointing to the primacy of restructuring in relation to bankruptcy proceedings, there is a serious obstacle to the broad, practical implementation of this idea associated with the low awareness of the interested parties themselves.

In October 2021 the act on electronic delivery will come into force. This will change the way of implementing the so-called rule of official form of service in proceedings before public administration authorities. A general principle of the equivalence of letters used to settle cases will be introduced, regardless of whether they have been prepared and recorded in electronic form or on paper. What more, the principle of priority for electronic deliveries will be introduced. This article recalls how the principle of official service is currently understood, and then it describes the changes (implemented by new regulations) in the method of service and their consequences for other procedural institutions in administrative proceedings.

The aim of the article is to assess the legal nature of the form of restricting access to activities in the field of organizing tourist events (as well as facilitating the purchase of linked travel services), which was introduced by the Act of 24 November 2017 on package travel and related travel services. The form of regulation of access to the above-mentioned activity does not, in essence, differ from that provided for in the provisions of the Entrepreneurs' Law Act in the case of regulated activity. However, it is not one of the three forms of regulation of economic activity known to the Law of Entrepreneurs, although it also includes the pursuit of economic activity. Therefore, it follows from the above that the catalog of forms of regulation of economic activity regulated by this Act is in some sense incomplete. The use of the regulated activity model by the legislator for the purposes of the system of restricting access to activities in the field of organizing tourist events and facilitating the purchase of related tourist services resulted in duplicating not only the advantages but also the disadvantages of the model.

According to the Supreme Administrative Court, the Minister of Climate and Environment is the competent authority to examine the application for approval of the geological operations plan for drillings to explore deep ground. This assessment is fully justified by provisions of Art. 161 sec. 3 point 9 of the Geological and Mining Law. The circumstances of the discussed case may, however, justify the assessment that the planned geological operations were aimed for using the Earth's heat or for identifying geological conditions for the construction of a heat pump. The estimated depth of the borhole was to be 100 m. If this was the case, the geological operations plan was only subject to notification to the starost and did not require approval by any administrative authority. The analysis of the requirements shaping the conditions for the performance of geological works leads to the conclusion that they do not comply with Directive 2011/92 /EU of 13.12.2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment.

The article is a criticism of the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) Judgment concerning the issue of ruling on a refusal to initiate proceedings, in proceedings commenced at the request of the party. Therefore, the scope of the party's rights in tax proceedings and the nature of the proceedings regarding the refund of value-added tax were analysed. On their basis, it was found that the refusal to initiate proceedings, issued according to Article 165a § 1 of the Tax Ordinance Act, applies only to proceedings inaugurated at the request of the party. Accordingly, it is not authorised to refuse to instigate the proceedings to credit the tax refund towards the liabilities indicated by the taxpayer.