Abstract

For many years now, Polish law enforcement agencies have had a difficult task securing information from digital service providers (and of information society services, more broadly) established in other EU member states. They have lacked the necessary powers - a gap created by the curious way in which the Directive on Electronic Commerce has been implemented. The country of origin principle, as transposed in the Electronic Services Act, has been given - inadvertently, we believe - much broader scope than intended by the European legislator, thus creating an obstacle to Polish law enforcement agencies directly addressing service providers cross-border. One should not hope that the Digital Service Act will bridge that gap. The Act does not confer any new powers on national agencies to issue disclosure orders. It merely seeks to harmonise certain procedural aspects of exercising the powers the agencies already have. But the legal landscape will eventually change. The EU has recently introduced new instruments for securing electronic evidence in cross-border investigations: the European production order and the European preservation order.