Database

It is reported that the right of access to public procurement is limited to regional trade agreement partners and members of the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement.

U.S. firms have voiced complaints that the Portuguese government tends to favor EU firms, even when bids from U.S. firms are technically superior or lower in price. They have also reported that they are more successful when bidding as part of consortia or as part of joint ventures with Portuguese or other EU firms.

The European Regulation No. 1042/2013 amending the Council Implementing Regulation No. 282/2011, declares that from January 2015, all supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs. These include, inter alia:
- images or text, such as photos, screensavers, e-books and other digitised documents e.g. PDF files;
- music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of programmes on demand;
- online magazines website supply or web hosting services distance maintenance of programmes and equipment;
- supplies of software and software updates advertising space on a website.

Both EU and non-EU suppliers have to register for VAT purposes and comply with the relevant obligations of the Member State where the customer is established, has his/her permanent address or usually resides. This may be burdensome as there are 81 VAT rates across the 28 EU countries and the rates may vary between 3% (Luxembourg) to 27% (Hungary) across member states. Furthermore, member states impose varying thresholds at which companies must begin paying VAT, ranging from EUR 0 to EUR 60,000.

As an alternative to obtaining multiple VAT registrations in each Member State where a supplier has a customer, affected suppliers may be able to opt to account for VAT across the EU via a a web-portal in the Member State in which they are identified. Hence, the system, known as the Mini One-Stop Shop (MOSS) scheme, allows taxable persons to avoid registering in each Member State of consumption.

The EU Copyright Directive allows “fair compensation” for copyright owners. As a result, several Member States have imposed national levy systems.

In Portugal, all importers and manufacturers of equipment and blank media are obliged to collect remunerations when the first sale of the product takes place. The levies are applied as follows:
Minidisc: EUR 0.19 per unit
Audio-CD R: EUR 0.13 per unit
Audio-DC RW: EUR 0.19 per unit
Data-CD R: EUR 0.05 per unit
Data-CD RW: EUR 0.14 per unit
CD 8 cm: EUR 0.27 per unit
DVD+ R: EUR 0.14 per unit
DVD- RW: EUR 0.30 per unit
DVD- R: EUR 0.14 per unit
DVD- RW: EUR 0.30 per unit
DVD RAM: EUR 1.00 per unit

There is a ban on advertising spirits and wine on the internet.

The European de minimis threshold for import duties is harmonized. Goods with a value of up to 128 SDR / 150 EUR / 186 USD are exempted from customs duties. The VAT de minimis threshold is not harmonized within the EU and can vary between 10 and 22 EUR, i.e. Member States can decide on a value within this range to grant an exemption on VAT for imported goods.

According to Poland's de minimis rule, goods with a value of up to 19 SDR / 22 EUR / 27 USD are exempted from VAT.

The EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) covers traditional broadcasting services as well as audiovisual media services provided on-demand, including via the Internet. According to the AVMS Directive on-demand services are not subject to any explicit, strict content quota, but Article 13 imposes on Member States the obligation to ensure that on-demand service providers promote European works. The Directive has been implemented by Member States in different ways, ranging from very extensive and detailed measures to a mere reference to the general obligation to promote European works.

In Poland, Article 13 has been implemented via two obligations:
- Video-on-demand (VOD) providers have to reserve a share of European works in their catalogue;
- VOD providers have to use promotion tools which give prominence to European works such as indicating the country of origin in the catalogue, providing possibilities for searching for European programs or placing information and materials promoting European programs.

The regulatory regime in Poland allows telecommunications operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to differentiate types of traffic or impose limitations as long as they clearly communicate this to the consumer. It is reported that operators do not explain properly how they decide about limiting traffic in contracts.

The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) found evidence of throttling of peer-to-peeer file sharing and video streaming in Poland.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbor. The Directive covers any type of infringement of third-party rights, including intellectual and industrial property rights and personality rights.

The limitations on liability in the Directive apply to clearly delimited activities (mere conduit, caching and hosting) carried out by internet intermediaries, rather than to categories of service providers or types of information. While it was not considered necessary to cover hyperlinks and search engines in the Directive, the Commission has encouraged Member States to further develop legal security for Internet intermediaries.

Since not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, the national case law is divergent and leads to legal insecurity on an EU level.

The Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means implements the E-commerce Directive in Poland, introducing intermediary liability. It covers mere conduit, caching and hosting and introduces no obligation to monitor or filter hosted or cached content. It also contains a basic notice-and-takedown procedure.

Under the Directive on Data Retention, operators were required to retain certain categories of traffic and location data (excluding the content of those communications) for a period between six months and two years and to make them available, on request, to law enforcement authorities for the purposes of investigating, detecting and prosecuting serious crime and terrorism. On 8 April 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) declared the Directive invalid. However, not all national laws which implemented the Directive have been overturned.

In Poland, the national law is still in force despite the ECJ ruling invalidating the Data Retention Directive. The data retention period is 24 months.

According to the Polish Gambling Act, any entity organizing gambling activities is obliged to archive in real time all data exchanged between such entity and the users in an archive device located in Poland.

Another restriction is the requirement that the equipment (servers) for processing and storing information and data regarding the bets and their participants must be installed and kept on the territory of a member state of the EU or EFTA.

The wage offered to foreign employees must not be lower than 70% of the average wage in the region of Poland where they are expected to perform their duties.

For contractual service suppliers (CSS) and idependent service suppliers (ISS) there are labour market tests. The employer must submit a vacancy notice/job offer to the local labour office. The notice should specify the renumeration offered. Some exemptions exist.

Poland implemented the full liberalisation of its electronic communications networks and services. Nonetheless, the last mile access is still owned by the incumbent.