Decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 20th Commercial Division, dated 27th April 2021
XX GC 1004/12

1. Group proceedings have a number of significant differences from ordinary civil proceedings. First of all, the course of the proceedings, the prerequisites for the admissibility of the proceedings and the scope of civil cases that can be recognized in group proceedings, the formation of the subject party, the rules for determining the remuneration of an attorney, the specific requirements for the content of a lawsuit, as well as a number of formal differences related to the conduct of group proceedings are different. All these differences mean that it is not possible to apply directly all the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code that have not been excluded by the provision of Article 24 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings. This leads to the conclusion that also to proceedings initiated before 1^st June 2017, the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code should be applied accordingly.
2. The provision of Article 24 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings has never excluded the application of Article 193 of the Code of Civil Procedure, despite its several amendments. In view of the importance of this provision, the exclusion from application of neighboring provisions, i.e., Articles 194-196 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the lack of changes in this regard when subsequent amendments were made, it should be considered that this was a conscious decision by the legislator. Nor does the application of this provision is definitively excluded by the distinctiveness of group proceedings. Therefore, it should have been assumed that, in principle, the modification of the action recognized in the group proceedings is permissible.
3. The act does not provide for a specific procedure for resolving the issue of admissibility of the inclusion of new claims in group proceedings. As a result, the provisions relating to the claims filed in the lawsuit should be applied accordingly.

The Regional Court in Warsaw, 20^th Commercial Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Katarzyna Kisiel, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                           Joanna Sieradz, Regional Court Judge;

Łukasz Oleksiuk, Regional Court Judge (Judge – Rapporteur)

having examined on 27^th April 2021 in Warsaw at a hearing the case brought by (…) Limited Liability Company with its registered office in W. against (…) with its registered office in N. (C.) for the protection of copyrights and related rights in group proceedings

decides to:

hear the case with respect to the new claims submitted by the plaintiff in the letter of 23^rd September 2019 in the group proceedings.