Marcin Sobkowicz
Registration of a company at an address does not necessarily mean that the property was being used for non-residential purposes and that the discount for conversion of perpetual usufruct into ownership must be repaid
This was the holding by the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland in the judgment of 4 November 2025 (case no. I OSK 1987/22). In that case, the administrative authorities had ordered the co-owners of real estate to repay the discount they had received on the conversion fee, on the grounds that a company had been registered at that address.
New opportunities for recognition of Polish citizenship
In a recent case, we managed to break through the paradigm of automatic loss of Polish citizenship if foreign citizenship is acquired. The case involved a citizen of Argentina (the grandson of Polish immigrants) who was denied confirmation of Polish citizenship by the Minister of Interior and Administration. The authority found that although the client’s mother was the holder of Polish citizenship via her father, she lost it when she turned 18 because at that time she also held Argentinian citizenship, acquired at birth.
Penalties for failure to transfer Passenger Name Record data
According to recent press reports, as many as 210 air carriers that operated air transport on routes to and from Poland in 2018 may be fined for breach of the Passenger Name Record Data Processing Act. In just four months (June–September 2021), the commander-in-chief of the Border Guard instituted some 17,000 proceedings against them seeking to impose administrative penalties, exposing them to fines that could total as high as PLN 640 million. Given that between 2018 and 2020 there were nearly 940,000 passenger-related flight operations (on both domestic and international routes) in Poland, this may represent just the tip of the iceberg.
Wind turbines: New regulation on the marking of air traffic obstacles
On 11 February 2021, the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 12 January 2021 on Air Traffic Obstacles, Obstacle Limitation Surfaces and Dangerous Devices came into force. In the method of notification and marking of air traffic obstacles, it replaced the regulation of 25 June 2003. Will wind turbines still need to be marked under the new regulation? If so, who should mark them and how? And, just as importantly, does existing marking need to be brought into compliance with the current regulations, and if so, when?
Cancellation due to pandemic: Are passengers entitled to compensation?
Since 15 March 2020, Poland has had a ban on civil aircraft landing on international passenger flights. Since 16 March, domestic passenger flights have also been banned, except for flights in the public or state interest. Do passengers whose flights have been cancelled as a result of this ban have the right to compensation from the air carriers that were to operate those flights?
