Protection of personal data in Poland - main facts

The most important legal act concerning protection of personal data in Poland is the Act on of 29 August 1997 on the Protection of Personal Data. The act establishes the Inspector General and determines framework of the personal data processing. Inspector General is competent in the issues concerning personal data protection and may inspect any subject who process personal data. Entities which belong to the EEA (European Economic Area) are obliged to comply with the Act on the Protection of Personal Data only if they operate in the territory of Poland. This means that almost every company registered in Polish National Court Register have to comply with the Act.

The main requirements for the data controller (in most cases – your company operating in Poland) are:

• To process personal data on the basis of legal prerequsites

• To inform data subject about its rights and the data controller status

• To register the data files in the Inspector General Office

• To secure the personal data from uncontrolled access

• To remove the personal data in case of request from data subject

Personal data usually can not be transferred outside of EEA (European Economic Area) without prior approval of the data subject. However, it can be transferred without restrictions in the European Union and few other countries (e.g. Norway, Island, Lichtenstein).

Not applying the provisions of the Polish Act on Personal Data Protection can lead to criminal responsibility, in some cases even to three years of imprisonment. More often it leads to the administrative proceeding.

In case of any questions please contact the author.

Poland ranked 1st by The Federation of European Employers

The Federation of European Employers put Poland on the top of the list of most attrictive countries for employeers. Poland scores positively on labour supply, labour relations and labour flexibility and its only negative score is in its level of internet skills. Each of the other top-rated countries share high scores on labour capability, although three (Denmark, Switzerland and the UK) suffer from labour supply problems and two (Denmark and Switzerland) from high wage costs The web page informs also that this ranking is not followed by direct foreign investement. In relation to Poland this statement is not true as you may check in the previous post.

Foreign investment in Poland

Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency has announced that value of direct foriegn investments reached 6 billion zlotys (approx. EUR 2 bilions). This value places Poland on the list of the most popular places to invest in the world. Please check a presentation on law of foreign investment in Poland prepared for our clients.