On September 3, 2019, an amendment to the Commercial Companies Code came into effect (Amendment), introducing a major change in how shareholders can hold their annual shareholders’ meetings.
Rather than holding shareholders’ meetings at the company’s registered office or any other location specified in the articles of association (within Poland), the shareholders of limited liability companies may now hold meetings electronically.
Additionally, the lawmaker digitalized the Polish National Court Register and the rules of making entries into the register. On March 1, 2020, further changes will come into force, adopted on the basis of the act dated January 26, 2018, on amendment of the Act on the National Court Register (Amendment 2).
WIBOR (Warsaw Interbank Offered Rate) is one of five critical financial benchmarks in the European Union (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/482). WIBOR is the interest rate benchmark for the vast majority of złoty-denominated commercial loans, more than 98% of Polish mortgage loans, 26% of the total nominal value of Polish bonds, and € 366 billion in notional amount of OTC interest rate derivatives. It applies to financial instruments with a value greater than Poland’s gross national product.
Last year, the Czech Ministry of Justice published a draft Act on Class Actions (“Act”), which was created in the aftermath of European Commission’s proposal to enact a directive on representative actions. Although the European Commission’s proposal is aimed at boosting consumer protection in the European Union, the Czech draft Act goes one step further and aims to provide access to collective redress to a broader group of individuals. During the last few months, the draft Act was subject to an interdepartmental commenting procedure within the government as well as to the scrutiny of professionals in both public and private sectors. The Ministry of Justice received a considerable amount of criticism, which highlighted the possibility of the misuse of class actions for the purposes of competitive fights. As the legislative procedure continued, the Ministry reflected some of the concerns in the new draft Act, which is now being reviewed by the Government Legislative Council. The Ministry expects the draft Act to be presented in the current state to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in October 2019. 
The liability of divided companies for the obligations of acquiring or newly incorporated companies under division by separation has given rise to controversy and debate within the legal doctrine in Poland. The legislation in force before March 1, 2019, did not provide the creditors of dividing companies with much protection.