Journal of Business Law7/2020

The subject of the article are new regulations on construction contract law introduced in the German Civil Code on 1.01.2018 regarding a construction works contract, a consumer construction works contract and a development contract. Various types of works contracts occurring in practice are presented in the article. The amended VOB/B 2016 (Verdingungsordnung für Bauleistungen. Teil B) was also taken into consideration. Particular emphasis was placed on the rights and obligations of the parties, the legal nature of contracts and liability for defects in construction contract obligations. The article is of substantial importance for Polish building contractors working in Germany.

The service of automated financial advice (robo-advice) belongs to financial innovations in the area of retail customer service and is provided by entities from the financial technologies segment. This service usually concerns investment consultancy and involves the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence to collect information from the client and propose a solution corresponding to the client's risk profile. This method of service reduces the costs of consultancy services and minimizes or completely abolishes the minimum investment amount required by the adviser. The homeland of robo-advice is the United States, where the largest market is, but robo-advisers are also present in Europe. The article presents the most important aspects related to the definition, regulations, operating, size of the world and Poland's market and it forecast until 2023. The presented analysis shows that the most likely solution in the future is the hybrid model, in which a traditional financial advisor responsible for shaping customer relations uses robo-advice tools for customer service. The challenge for the regulator and financial supervision will be the introduction of such standards that will ensure the security of economic trading participants, and on the other hand will not be too restrictive and inhibit the development of this innovative segment of the financial services market.

The main question to be answered in this analysis relates to the impact of the EU new legislative framework on the collective redress on the legal position of the business environment. The analysis concerns the system of collective redress as proposed by the European Commission in the Proposal for a Directive on representative actions (2018). The paper presents and examines the stakeholders concerns related to the proposed by the European Commission. Specifically, it discusses the issues such as: (i) lack of adequate safeguards mitigating the risk of abusive legal actions commenced by the consumers (abusive litigation), (ii) missing criteria for qualified entities entitled to bring an representative action and (iii) uncertainty in terms of consumer mandate to initiate representative action. The paper elaborates if and to what extent these concerns were shared by the EU institutions involved in the various stages of the legislative process.

The article describes the most important, according to the author, the provisions of the Act of 16.12.2016 on the principles of managing state property in the field of functioning of sports club — joint-stock company. This Act introduces primarily three variants of supervision: obtaining the consent of the general meeting of the shareholders for specific legal actions, obtaining the consent of the supervisory body for specific legal actions, as well as determining the rules for the disposal of fixed assets by applying the tender procedure and exceptions to the obligation to apply it. In a specific situation, that duties must be used by sports clubs which operate in the form of joint-stock company. The purpose of the article is also to clarify the doubts related to these provisions.

The purpose of this study is to analyse selected legal changes concerning support schemes for renewable energy sources, introduced by the Act of 19 July 2019 amending the Act on Renewable Energy Sources and certain other acts, in terms of achieving the EU's energy and climate target, i.e. achieving a 15% share of renewable sources in Poland's gross final energy consumption in 2020. The research methods used by the author were based on formal-dogmatic and comparative methods. Commenting on the introduced legal changes, the author also took into account aspects of economic analysis of the law. The study refers, in particular, to the analysis of the prosumer support system and the auction support system, as currently the leading mechanisms for promoting renewable energy in Poland. According to the author's position, the introduced legal changes should not significantly contribute to an increase in installed capacity of renewable energy sources in 2020, although they will certainly improve the legal situation of energy producers and may increase the attractiveness of the Polish renewable energy sources market. The author also points to the need to harmonize Polish legislation with the EU Directive 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, which provides for the need to dynamize the development of renewable energy sources in the perspective of the next energy and climate target set for 2030.

The subject of the gloss is the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court and the preceding ruling of the Provincial Administrative Court in Gorzów Wielkopolski. In these judgments, the court came to the conclusion that the municipal council had the power to directly control municipal companies. This judgment is a breach of the previous jurisprudence, assuming that the supervision and control by the audit committee of the commune council takes place indirectly through the control of the activity of the executive body of the commune. The article analyses the arguments presented by the court both against the background of the previous jurisprudence and statements of the doctrine. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the position of the Court that allows for the control of municipal companies by audit committees is not supported by the applicable legal status. Even if it is assumed that the board may indicate such an object of control, there are no legal instruments forcing the company to submit to such control. The only instrument envisaged by the legislator is the right to individual control of companies by councilors.