Companies expanding from Taiwan to Poland tend to default to Taiwan’s legal logic when trying to make sense of Polish regulations, and this instinct tends to create gaps specifically around company governance, labor law, and contract handling. This article compares several notable differences between Taiwanese and Polish business regulations, so companies can plan with the right expectations rather than discovering the two systems work differently only after running into a problem.
Differences in Company Governance Logic
Taiwan’s company law and the company law framework Poland follows as an EU member state both cover basic governance mechanisms like shareholder meetings and boards of directors, but the actual details differ. Resolution thresholds, the scope of director liability, and restrictions on share transfers, for instance, follow the structure of EU company law directives in Poland, which doesn’t fully align with the logic of Taiwan’s Company Act. Companies that apply governance practices familiar to their Taiwan headquarters directly to a Polish subsidiary often run into gaps around board resolutions or shareholder rights arrangements.
This is worth confirming while designing the parent-subsidiary governance structure. Assuming the two sets of rules are similar, only to discover otherwise once operations are underway, tends to be a costlier way to find out.
Differences in Labor Law
Taiwan and Poland’s labor laws differ in a number of ways when it comes to contract types, termination procedures, and notice period requirements. Suppose a Taiwanese company handles termination for a Polish employee using the more flexible approach common in Taiwan, without first confirming Poland’s specific requirements around notice periods and grounds for termination. That gap in procedure can expose the company to employee grievances or additional legal risk. This isn’t an unusual situation, because labor law tends to be highly localized, and Taiwanese hiring experience alone rarely provides a reliable basis for judging compliance requirements in Poland.
Beyond individual employment contracts, Poland’s rules around collective bargaining and unions also differ from how labor relations are typically handled in Taiwan, and this difference becomes more relevant as a company’s workforce grows.
Differences in Contract and Dispute Resolution Logic
Taiwan’s contract law tradition and the continental European legal tradition Poland follows have different underlying logic when it comes to interpreting contracts and determining liability for breach. In practice, companies that simply translate a Taiwan-style contract template into English or Polish, without adjusting the terms to reflect Polish law, may find the contract offers weaker protection than expected exactly when a dispute arises.
The choice of dispute resolution mechanism is also worth planning ahead of time. Arbitration and local courts each come with different considerations around timeline, cost, and enforceability. It’s worth settling this at the contract signing stage rather than debating it only after a dispute has already occurred.
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Most differences between Taiwanese and Polish business regulations aren’t a matter of one being stricter than the other. They come from two legal systems built on fundamentally different structural logic. When we help companies plan their Poland strategy, we typically recommend treating these differences as two separate systems to reconcile, rather than assuming the rules are roughly interchangeable.
If your company is evaluating regulatory differences in the Polish market, or needs help clarifying governance, labor, or contract planning, we’d be glad to discuss it with our advisory team.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal, tax, or investment advice. Regulations should be verified against the latest Polish laws; for an assessment specific to your company, we encourage you to speak with our advisory team directly.