Europa Regionum

In contract practice, the contracts for the provision of electronic services are often concluded by means of remote communication. Then, there may appear (in a given configuration of subjects) the problem of co-application of regulations contained in the Act of the 18th July 2002 on Providing Services by Electronic Means and the Act of the 30th May 2014 on Consumer Rights. This article attempts to determine the relationship between these legal acts, which (within the analysed range) requires a comparative analysis of the definitions of ‘services provided by electronic means’ and ‘contract concluded at a distance’. It follows from the analysis that the scopes of these notions may remain in the crossover relationship, which will result in the need for co-application of regulations contained in both above mentioned acts. With respect to information obligations, the relationship between these regulations is determined by Article 26 of the Act on Consumer Rights which provides that, in the event of contradiction, the regulations contained in the Act on Consumer Rights must be applied. It should be mentioned, however, that in relation to numerous information obligations, both regulations are complementary. From the evoked collision rule it also follows that the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means complements the information obligations (specifying the content of the information and the manner of its communication) which follow from Art. 12–23 of the Act on Consumer Rights. In the situation when a contract for the provision of electronic services is also a contract concluded at a distance, the consumer has the right to withdraw from such a contract without giving any reason, according to the principles determined in Chapter 3 of the Act on Consumer Rights. In some cases, however, this right may be excluded ex lege.