Zmiana warunków realizacji umów handlowych – COVID-19 jako przesłanka zastosowania klauzuli rebus sic stantibus
Amendment of the terms of implementation of commercial agreements – COVID-19 as a prerequisite for the application of the rebus sic stantibus clause

Summary/Abstract: The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 disease has had a noticeable impact on economic relations, which rely heavily on the long-term nature of contracts. These circumstances often resulted in difficulties in the implementation of contract terms by entrepreneurs. In order to remedy the situation, the parties of the contract could make attempts to adapt their contracts to the situation at that time. One of the tools which could be used was the clause of extraordinary change of conditions regulated in the provision of Article 3571 of the Civil Code. The aim of the article is to compare different ways of modifying a contract, the performance of which has become grossly difficult; such as an agreement between the parties, a force majeure clause or, if the relevant conditions are met, the use of the court’s assistance in invoking the rebus sic stantibus clause. In the latter part of the article, three characteristic lines of judicial decisions that have developed in the context of the so-called „Great Clause” will be quoted.Based on the extensive case law cited in the article, it can be concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on economic turnover could have been successfully recognized as the cause of an extraordinary change in relations justifying the inter-ference of courts in commercial contracts. However, such interference was permissi-ble only in cases where it depended on the consequences of extraordinary changes in relations, such as a serious loss to one of the parties or excessive difficulty in the performance of contractual provisions, and only in the context of specific commercial contracts subject to judicial consideration.

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