Andrzej Wierciński, Anna Wojciechowska and Anna Wyrzykowska have co-authored the chapter on Polish regulations regarding corporate governance in ”The Corporate Governance Review 2020”, which features an overview of the rules in 26 selected jurisdictions worldwide.

In this legal alert we present the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the energy sector and the regulations provided in the Anti-Crisis Shield.

Due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the functioning of companies’ bodies, including fulfilling their obligations related to implementation of the shareholders’ register, has been significantly impeded. In order to facilitate its implementation by entrepreneurs, pursuant to the Act of 14 May 2020 (Official Journal dated 15 May 2020 item 875) amending certain laws concerning protection measures in connection with the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus (further, the "Shield 3.0"), which entered into force on 16 May 2020, the deadlines provided by law for the shareholders’ register have been postponed.

The Polish Financial Fund (PFR) offers the Financial Shield consisting of 3 main parts, which will each separately support micro-enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large enterprises.

In this unusual situation, it is necessary to remember that competition law applies in full. Both international and national antitrust authorities have pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic does not justify infringements (crisis cartels will not be tolerated). At the same time, the new, broad powers granted to antitrust authorities allow them to interfere with the business activities of entrepreneurs to a large extent. The only positive news for entrepreneurs in the current situation is that they can benefit from numerous forms of state aid.

The published law amending the law on special arrangements for preventing, counteracting and combating COVID-19 and the executive regulations introduce a number of changes in tax law. Selected changes are summarised in the alert.

The published law amending the law on special arrangements for preventing, counteracting and combating COVID-19 (Ant-Crisic Shield Act) introduced some changes in bankruptcy and restructuring law - in our alert you can find the most important of them.

Practical tips taking into account the solutions presented in the Act on specific solutions related to the prevention, prevention and eradication of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them (Anti-Crisis Shield), which entered into force on April 1, 2020, and the draft of the Act on specific support instruments regarding the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Shield 2.0). In this challenging situation, we remain at your disposal.