outsourcing | In Principle

Outsourcing continues to be an appealing solution for businesses. But for it to generate benefits rather than legal problems, a number of issues must be analysed—from the liability rules governing the parties to issues of state aid and data protection.

The Supreme Court of Poland ruled on 17 February 2016 that an entity conducting direct marketing using automated generating systems (in that case SMS ads) is liable for failure to obtain consent from recipients also when it has contracted out the marketing to an external firm.

Work is underway on a General Data Protection Regulation for the EU. The changes expected in the new legislation will be important for outsourcing companies. Among the planned changes, there will be severe sanctions for violation of data protection regulations.

Invalidation of the Safe Harbour decision created a gap in the system for transfer of data from Europe to the US. The question arose of how to evaluate the legality of existing data transfer practices based on Safe Harbour, and what rules to apply in the resulting vacuum.

In today’s knowledge-based economy, consolidations of enterprises are common—sometimes even between competitors. Employment reductions are a natural part of any consolidation, but are a source of legal risks for merging competitors. Such risks are hard to eliminate, but does it have to end in stalemate?

As a taxpayer, a business remains liable for tax obligations even when it hires an external professional service company to maintain its accounting books.

Financial institutions may contract out some of their operations to external firms, but not to the extent that there is nothing left of the bank but the building, according to Danuta Pajewska, a partner at Wardyński & Partners.