At a hearing concerning the decision by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) imposing a fine of PLN 8 million on Telekomunikacja Polska SA (now Orange Polska), the Supreme Court of Poland denied the cassation appeal by the telecommunications regulator.

In its explanation of the ruling from the bench, the Supreme Court upheld the position taken in several previous judgments by the court, under which UKE may not impose a fine after commencing audit proceedings until it has first concluded the audit by issuing post-audit recommendations or ordering the party to provide additional information.

Wierzbowski Eversheds represented its client Orange at all stages of the proceeding. Orange was represented before the Supreme Court by Dr Arwid Mednis, head of the privacy, information and communication technologies team and electronic communications team at Wierzbowski Eversheds.

According to Mednis, “The judgment by the Supreme Court upholds the existing line of case law. In several similar instances the court refused to consider a cassation appeal by UKE. This time it agreed to rule on the cassation appeal but reached a judgment in favour of our client. Given the significant amount of the fine, the case was very important to us and the client.”