Control of concentration of entrepreneurs is a legal term
for: merger, acquisition of control, acquisition of an organized part of property
and creation of a new entrepreneur. Its task is to prevent excessive
consolidation, which, if left uncontrolled, could lead to a significant
restriction of competition on the market by acquiring or strengthening a
dominant position.
The control of concentration of entrepreneurs, performed
mainly by the President of the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer
Protection, covers transactions that have or could have had a significant
impact on the market in Poland. The task of the President of the Polish Office
of Competition and Consumer Protection is, inter alia, issuing consents to
carry out a specific concentration in order to prevent any restriction of
competition on the market. The President of the Polish Office of Competition
and Consumer Protection may also issue a decision prohibiting merger. However,
it is worth noting that concentration can be allowed under certain conditions.
An example of this is the resale of part of the property. The Polish Act on
competition and consumer protection of February 16, 2007 also allows for the
approval of a merger leading to a restriction of competition, in certain very
strictly defined situations. It refers to such events as a result of which
there will be economic development; technical progress or simply they will have
a positive impact on the national economy.
In accordance with the above-mentioned Act, there may be
cases in which there will be no need to notify the intent of the concentration
to the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, because this
action will have little impact on the market. It should also include cases
where the turnover of the enterprise which is the object of the takeover on the
territory of Poland in none of the two financial years preceding the
notification was equal to or greater than the amount of EUR 10 million. If the
entities belong to the same capital group, there is also no need to notify the
concentration to the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
If the concentration has been carried out, without prior
consent from the Polish President of the Office of Competition and Consumer
Protection, the President may take specific steps aimed at restoring the state
of effective competition. This effect can be achieved by ordering the division
of the entrepreneur / enterprises or ordering the resale of a part of the
shares. The President of the Office may also impose a financial penalty of up
to 10% of last year’s revenue of the said enterprise, to entities that took
part in an unauthorized concentration.
What is concentration control about?
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We usually associate the cryptocurrency
environment with advanced security measures to secure financial resources.
There are even companies that offer cryptocurrency holders advanced methods of
securing their wealth through military technology. Nevertheless, the problem of
theft is not a foreign topic in the cryptocurrency community.
The graph above shows the size of
cryptocurrency theft over a period of 3 years. Different colors indicate
different cases of cryptocurrency theft, while the black line shows the number
of recorded incidents.
Almost all cases of cryptocurrency theft
fall into one of the three theft categories. The categories mentioned are:
Exchange attacks, attacks on individuals, DeFi exploits.
Exchange attacks
At this point, thieves have stolen
billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency by attacking exchange wallets. Many
companies, including such large and respected companies as Bitpoint, Binance,
DragonEx, have been the subject of keen interest from hackers. The question
arises as to how hackers managed to break through such advanced security. One
of the most common methods used by hackers is social engineering. A hacker
typically tries to trick employees of a particular cryptocurrency security company’s
customers into downloading special malware that will give them access to one or
more accounts. If the attacker is sufficiently determined, he will wait for
months or even longer, observing patterns of money inflows and outflows so that
he can sense the right moment to steal as much money as possible. What does
this look like in practice? In one
particularly audacious case, hackers set up a fake company, complete with
website, social media presence and executive resumes. On the fake website, the hackers posted that
they had created an automated trading bot and sent out several messages to
employees of the companies/exchanges asking them to download and try a free
trial version. At least one of the recipients was tempted by the offer. As it
later turned out, the “free trial” included malware that helped
hackers obtain the keys to private cryptocurrency wallets of several users.
Immediately after gaining access to these accounts, the hackers began siphoning
funds from these wallets. Hacking activity is a major threat for exchanges.
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Illegal
organisations, or other illegal cryptocurrency entities, are groups transacting
with cryptocurrency whose activities do not necessarily rise to the level of
criminality, but are nevertheless considered risky due to activities balancing
on the edge of legality or reputational risk. One example of such entities are
implicitly sex-related sites such as RubRatings. The site in question allows
massage therapists to publish advertisements encouraging clients to use their
sexual services and includes Bitcoin as a payment option. While services
offered by the said website are as a rule legal, the RubRatings website implies
the availability of sexual services and the site itself is listed as a human
trafficking intermediary, therefore the RubRatings organisation, can be
categorised as illegal.
Domestic Extremism and Racial Hatred
Another
example relates to the organisations and public figures associated with
domestic extremism and racial hatred. Many of these organisations accept
donations in the form of cryptocurrencies, and it can be expected that more
will follow, as with the current interest in cryptocurrencies, organisations
will continue to move away from conventional payment. Examples confirming this
trend are publications such as the Daily Stormer, as well as the work of public
figures such as Nick Fuentes. Extremist rhetoric itself is generally not illegal
in most jurisdictions, but many of these groups have been linked to incidents
involving outright violence. Examples of such incidents include: The 2017 Unite
the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia or the 2021 riot in front of the
US Capitol. In the latter case, Chainalysis found that several people with
alt-right views, including some associated with the rally immediately preceding
the riot, had received large donations in bitcoin one month earlier.
Who are Shadow Brokers?
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Due to its
membership in the Netherlands Polish Chamber of Commerce, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI
KG LEGAL will take part in the Business Mission for Organic Producers from the
Netherlands to Poland organized on 26-27 October 2021.
Together
with the Netherlands Embassy, the Netherlands Polish Chamber of Commerce
participates in an incoming mission for organic producers from the Netherlands.
The NPCC will be responsible for a tailor made matchmaking program for incoming
companies.
The new EU
Green Deal strategy, which aims to increase the area of organic farming in the
EU to 25% of agricultural land by 2030, is a huge boost for this sector. In
Poland, with the current share of 3.5% organic farming area, reaching the 10%
ceiling by 2030 means tripling the current state.
On the
other hand with 38 mln inhabitants Poland is a big market and with increasing
knowledge and demand for good quality food, sales of organic products in Poland
are steadily growing. Next to retail chains focused on eco certified products
only, also shelfs of regular retail chains are being filled with products
labeled with the EU green leaf. Also bottom up initiatives like bio trade fairs
are more common and with well-developed delivery system in Poland also
omni-channel solutions are very popular in this sector.
The Embassy in Warsaw together with the Polish Chamber for Organic Food prepared a report on the Polish organic production and current market for organic products in Poland. You can read the whole report under the following link: https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2021/09/21/digital-trade-mission-organic-to-poland
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More and more often, foreign clients of
KIEŁTYKA GŁADKOWSKI KG LEGAL take part in online hearings as a part of civil
lawsuits. This also applies to foreign witnesses in commercial proceedings
conducted for foreign clients and settled by the Polish civil courts.
The widespread use of remote (online)
questioning of witnesses results from a temporary change in the Polish civil
procedure, which adapted the practice of conducting court cases in the
realities of the pandemic. The proliferation of the practice of questioning
witnesses has created the standard practice of summoning foreign witnesses in
writing by document, which the Polish court delivers by conventional mail to
the witness’ address and summons the witness to participate in the online
hearing. The court in such a letter explains in great detail to the witness how
and when the witness is to connect to the court online.
Due to the fact that the court informs the
foreign witness in great detail about how the foreign witness is to connect
online with the Polish court using a computer, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL
presents below the full content of the Polish Court’s summons and instructions.
It may turn out to be very helpful for
foreign readers doing business in Poland, because this type of summons is very
standard and is used in a very similar way by all Polish common courts.
The summons begins with the designation of
the court by which the summons is issued. Full text of the summons together
with instructions on the consequences of failure to appear online is presented
below:
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