When providing services electronically, it is necessary to have a Terms and Conditions document for electronic services (ŚUDE). But what does this mean in practice, what constitutes the provision of electronic services, and does a given website foresee such activities?
The answer to this question can be found in Article 2(4) of the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means. The Act states that a simple contact form or a newsletter subscription form, which allows our client to provide their personal data (or even just their email address), is sufficient for us to have the obligation to possess a Terms and Conditions document for electronic services (Article 8 of the aforementioned Act).
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The Terms and Conditions for electronic services may include a so-called privacy policy, which outlines the principles of processing personal data during the provision of electronic services. The privacy policy may also be regulated in a separate document; however, regardless of the form, this information must be made available to service recipients (clients) throughout the entire operation of our website. This is related to the Personal Data Protection Act, which imposes additional obligations on us. To meet its requirements, we must ensure the security of the personal data of service recipients, which means having documentation for personal data protection (security policy and instructions for managing the IT system), training individuals who process this data, granting them authorizations, and registering data sets with the Polish Data Protection Authority. This is a much broader topic and goes beyond the scope of this article.
The last of the most important legal acts related to the provision of electronic services is the Act on Specific Conditions for Consumer Sales and Amending the Civil Code, which imposes on us the obligation to have a Terms and Conditions document for the online store. The content of this document may vary depending on the industry, the range of products, and many other factors related to the offer. However, the most important thing is that the Terms and Conditions do not violate any of the 5052 prohibited clauses published on the UOKiK website.
In summary, the freedom to conduct business online is, in fact, a fiction. Almost every aspect of this activity is regulated by universally applicable legal provisions, compliance with which is not a one-time action but a continuous process. Moreover, failure to meet these requirements can be costly, as administrative penalties imposed by state authorities responsible for enforcing these regulations (the Polish DPA, UKE, UOKiK) can be very high.
