The New Regulation of Consumer Bankruptcy as an Instrument for the Protection of Consumers’ Economic Rights (Nowa regulacja upadlosci konsumenckiej jako instrument ochrony praw ekonomicznych konsumenta)

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the implementation in the Polish law of a new consumer bankruptcy model in 2014, as an instrument for the protection of economic rights of honest consumers who are, however, under threat of consumer bankruptcy. The article describes the economic and social consequences of the use of this institution and presents the history of its regulation in our legal system, also indicating the evolution of the legislative policy pursued by the legislature in relation to consumer bankruptcy. It was found that before 2014 lawmakers had failed to create an effective mechanism for debt relief for individuals not engaged in economic activity. Then, the existing regulations were analyzed based on the current state of the law. As a result, it was concluded that the legislator had achieved the primary objective of the regulations to broaden the scope of protection of the economic interests of Polish consumers.