Abstract

As of 1 July 2015, an amendment of the Polish Criminal Code came into force. The authors examine possible legal consequences of newly adopted regulations, in particular the impact of new laws on criminal liability of corporations. Assuming an increase in the number of criminal investigations against companies, the authors focus on the importance of criminal compliance rules and analyze whether corporations should attach greater importance to compliance programs. The authors argue that compliance programs aimed at ensuring that even an offence committed by a representative of a company would not make the corporation criminally liable should become common in Poland. In conclusion, they try to prove that because of international recognition of importance of compliance Polish companies may profit from implementing comprehensive criminal compliance programs also businesswise.