Personal rights: John Doe lawsuit in Poland?

Why is it new?

Currently, anyone wishing to pursue a claim in civil proceedings must know the identity of the defendant (including name, address). The proposers believe that, as a consequence, if you do not have this kind of information, it is impossible for you to obtain effective legal protection. This is particularly the case for people whose personal rights have been infringed by anonymous postings on the Internet.

What's the proposal?

• The proposed legislation is intended to empower civil courts to request the necessary identifying information for proceedings.
• The court will ask the online service provider (through which the personal rights of the claimant were infringed) to send the defendant's identification data and to indicate the details of the defendant's Internet provider.
• The latter will have to send all available data of the defendant.
• Both the online service provider and the Internet provider will be required to provide the requested information within 7 days.
• Failure to provide the information could result in a financial penalty of between 100,000 PLN and 1,000,000 PLN (approx. EUR 23,000 and EUR 233,000).·
• A new data retention obligation directed at online service providers is also proposed in connection with these changes.
   

The draft will therefore introduce new legal obligations for online service providers. Among other things, they will have to:

• comply with new data retention requirements – which may require new data storage spaces and data protection measures;
• design a quick response system to a court requests – delay may result in a penalty;
• update their information flow systems.

The bill has only just reached the lower house   of the Polish Parliament so there is still time to prepare for possible changes. The proposers want the law to enter into force 12 months after promulgation.