Dealing with social media influencers—Poland

Produced in partnership with Piotr Dynowski LL.M. of Bird & Bird and Aleksandra Żebrowska of Bird & Bird

Practice notes

Dealing with social media influencers—Poland

Produced in partnership with Piotr Dynowski LL.M. of Bird & Bird and Aleksandra Żebrowska of Bird & Bird

Practice notes

This Practice Note is aimed primarily at brands and advertising agencies wishing to engage with social media influencers (or other talent) for social media marketing campaigns and advertising promotions in Poland. It covers:

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Influencer marketing as a form of advertising
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Disclosure requirements
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Applicable advertising regulations
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Sanctions for inadequate disclosure
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Ownership of influencer content
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Key provisions in influencer contracts

Influencer marketing as a form of advertising

While influencer marketing is highly popular in Poland, there are no laws which target this activity specifically. Influencer marketing is treated by law as a form of advertising, which means that in practice all relevant regulations on advertising apply to it.

However, in September 2021, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) initiated an investigation into the proper marking of sponsored content by influencers. This was followed in September 2022 by the publication of an official guidebook on marking advertising content by influencers in social media. The guidebook was prepared

Piotr Dynowski, LL.M.

Partner, Bird & Bird

Piotr Dynowski is a partner and head of the IP, media, tech and comms practice at Bird & Bird’s Warsaw office. He is an attorney-at-law (radca prawny).

Piotr is one of the leading intellectual property experts in Poland. He advises on a wide range of contentious, commercial and regulatory matters in the most innovative sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, media, entertainment, sports, advertising, IT and telecommunications.

In particular, Piotr supports clients in developing and implementing comprehensive pretrial and litigation strategies for the protection of intellectual property, and represents clients at all levels of proceedings before common courts, administrative courts and the Polish Patent Office. He has represented clients in many multimillion-euro and precedent-setting disputes.

He supports clients in business transactions related to the transfer and acquisition of intellectual property rights, as well as in matters related to media rights, image rights, sponsorship, merchandising and licensing. Piotr’s clients include broadcasters, advertising

and media agencies, publishers, organisers of mass events, sports federations and athletes.

He also advises on all aspects of gaming law, in particular online gambling and betting, social gaming and e-sports. His expertise covers licensing regimes and regulatory issues, as well as advertising and provision of B2B services to gambling operators. As an expert in Polish gambling law, Piotr frequently speaks at events such as EGR Briefing, ICE VOX and Prague Gaming Summit.

Piotr is a lecturer at the Hugo Grotius Intellectual Property Rights Centre in Warsaw, and at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

He was awarded Legal Rising Star 2012 by LexisNexis and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, ILO Client’s Choice Award – Poland Patents 2015 and 2020 and Managing IP – IP Star 2014 and 2015, and Patent Star 2016–2021.

He is a legal expert to the Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Polish Chamber of Information Technologies and Telecommunications, and a member of INTA, AIPPI, ECTA, PTMG, Marques and IMGL.

Aleksandra Żebrowska

Associate, Bird & Bird

Aleksandra Żebrowska is an associate in the Intellectual Property team of Bird & Bird. She has been advising clients since 2016.

Aleksandra specialises in matters involving various aspects of intellectual property law, with a special focus on trademarks, patents, copyrights and unfair competition.

She has participated in complex IP litigation, involving patent and trademark infringements in particular, the invalidation of industrial property rights, before the common courts, the Polish Patent Office and administrative courts. She is well versed in the protection and commercialisation of IP rights, the enforcement of trademark and patent rights as well as the transfer and licensing of new technologies.

She also specialises in providing legal assistance to companies operating in the TMT field, including companies from the gaming and advertising sectors as well as TV broadcasters and publishing houses. She has participated in diverse international projects of a complexity requiring exceptional engagement and a thorough understanding of corporate operations.

She has been providing day-to-day advice to clients on structuring the transfer of IP rights and on M&A transactions in the area of IP rights and new technologies.

Before joining Bird & Bird, she gained professional experience working for renowned international and Polish law firms.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Social media definition

What does Social media mean?

Internet-based platforms which allow for interactions between individuals or the broadcast of content to the wider world and which are far more interactive than traditional broadcast media.

Dealing with social media influencers—Poland

Produced in partnership with Piotr Dynowski LL.M. of Bird & Bird and Aleksandra Żebrowska of Bird & Bird

Dealing with social media influencers—Poland

Produced in partnership with Piotr Dynowski LL.M. of Bird & Bird and Aleksandra Żebrowska of Bird & Bird