Law enforcement authorities rarely turn to the possibility of prosecuting collective entities, but this is now set to change. This applies in particular to environmental offences, for which the procedure has already been simplified and sanctions have been tightened.
Enviromental offences
Enviromental offences are in Polish Criminal Code:
- Causing damage to nature (we have written more about this here)
- Significant environmental pollution
- Inappropriate waste handling (we have written more about this here)
- Inadequate handling of radioactive material
- Lack of care for protective equipment
- Destruction or damage to protected land or facilities
- Environmentally hazardous activities
Both the manager of the company and the ordinary employee can be held criminally liable for environmental offences.
Liability of a collective entity
In 2022, the law on the liability of collective entities for environmental offences was amended. First of all, in the case of environmental offences, holding a collective entity liable is no longer conditional on a prior conviction of an individual. The threat of a fine for environmental offences has also been tightened, raising the lower dimension from PLN 1,000 to PLN 10,000. The maximum fine is still PLN 5 million. In addition, the court may order additional measures of a penal nature against a collective entity, such as a ban on promotion or advertising, a ban on the use of grants, subsidies or other forms of financial support with public funds, or a ban on applying for public contracts, which may seriously hamper operations.
Deputy Public Prosecutor General has recently issued an order obliging Regional Public Prosecutors to increase the effectiveness of prosecutors’ offices in applying the provisions of the Act of 28 October 2002 on the responsibility of collective entities for criminal offences, especially in cases of acts against the environment. That can cause a massive waive of criminal cases against collective entities.
Importantly, a collective entity and an individual, such as a board member, can be criminally liable at the same time.
Full article is availabe in Polish here.
