The Ministry of Digitization has launched consultations on two draft laws designed to implement in Poland the December 2018 Directive of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (E³KE). The draft is innovative and meets the requirements of the rapidly developing digitization in Europe. The regulation of audiovisual policy aims to best implement the provisions of the E£KE as well as meet the expectations of Poland’s growing telecommunications market. The needs of both entrepreneurs and consumers of these services have been widely consulted and taken into account when drafting the new legal norms. In addition, the protection of such values as freedom of speech, pluralism, consumer protection and protection of minors were included in the laws.
The first draft is the Electronic Communications Law, and the second is the legislation implementing the law.
The new law is intended to replace the July 16, 2004 law. It contains extensive, systemic substantive changes, but also unchanged provisions of the telecommunications law in a structured form. It will regulate, among other things, the performance of activities involving the provision of electronic communication services, the provision of access, the register of local government units, the conditions for the management of frequencies, orbital resources and numbering resources. The regulations will also cover the rights and obligations of users, rules for processing telecommunications data and protecting the secrecy of electronic communications. The biggest amendment, however, concerns the codification for the first time of issues related to over-the-top (OTT) services, i.e. interpersonal communications that do not use numbers, and the service of additional debit (direct billing).
The Ministry of Digitization invites all interested parties to consult until the end of the day on August 28 to email – konsultacje.pke@mc.gov.pl
The contents of the drafts are available on the website of the Government Legislation Center.
