electronic identification - legal aspects of new technologies

The Act on Trust Services and Electronic Identification is intended to adapt Polish law to the EU’s eIDAS Regulation. Among other things, it repeals the Electronic Signature Act. The new act is part of a broad trend toward creation of a new regulatory framework for digital commerce.

Consultations are nearing the end on the proposed Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for strong customer authentication announced by the European Banking Authority pursuant to the revised Payment Services Directive (2015/2366, known as PSD2). This proposal was much awaited by the entire financial technology industry. The standards could have a huge impact on business models and tech solutions applied on the FinTech market.

In the last couple of years we have seen in our legal practice a great increase in the number of cases related to cybercrime (an issue we discussed in the firm Yearbook, at pp. 7–9). Many cases involve attacks on Internet bank accounts from which criminals steal money, mainly using “phishing” methods, sometimes cleaning out customers’ life savings.

The EU’s eIDAS Regulation enters into force on 1 July 2016. The importance of this somewhat mysterious act is not yet widely appreciated. It opens up new possibilities and creates space for very interesting new services.