Before closing the sale of Lotos, PiS changed the law so that members of company authorities would not be held responsible for wrong decisions. In the legal community, this change is referred to as “lex Lotos”, “lex Obajtek” or “impunity 2.0”.
The amendment as a government project was prepared by a commission operating at the Ministry of State Assets supervising companies with state treasury shareholding, including Orlen and Lotos. People associated with Orlen played a key role in it.
Amendment to the Code of Companies, or “lex Obajtek”
The amendment to the Code of Companies, including the point reducing the liability of members of management and supervisory boards, was challenged by the Senate. On March 11, 2022, the Upper House moved to reject the changes. The justification stated that “the Act does not meet the standards of decent legislation”, and drew attention to the “dilution of the responsibility of the management board and the supervisory board”. Very quickly, on March 24, he rejected the position of the Senate Sejm. The rapporteur here was Janusz Kowalski (PiS-Solidarna Polska), who in MAP was the government plenipotentiary for the reform of ownership supervision over state-owned companies (i.e. changes in the Code of Commercial Companies). There were 236 deputies in favor of the changes (PiS, SP and Appetizers), and 211 against (the entire opposition). The amendment was signed by the president immediately (April 4).
