At the outset, the moderator framed the panel’s title as a hypothesis rather than a thesis, thereby opening the floor for an in-depth discussion.

Wanda Buk, a partner at GWW Legal & Tax, emphasised the complexity of the legislative process, noting that emerging legal loopholes often prompt legislators to introduce excessive regulations. While she cautioned against completely demonising this tendency, she noted, ‘the fact is that companies have to report much more than the EU requires, and this burdens business’. She cited examples from the cryptocurrency and online currency exchange markets, where regulations intended to combat abuse also slowed market development.

Ewelina Stępnik-Godawa, regulatory manager at Allegro, argued that in practice, the single market fails to function as intended, a reality felt most acutely by medium-sized companies and consumers. ‘If we impose additional taxes or obligations on entrepreneurs, these costs are passed on anyway – to business partners and customers’, she explained. She added that from the transport industry's perspective, discrepancies in transport laws across EU countries severely hinder the operations of smaller companies that lack the resources of multinational corporations.

Jakub Bińkowski of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers noted that ‘gold-plating’ is a common phenomenon in Poland, especially within the labour market. ‘When operating in different EU countries, we should feel that the rules are uniform’, he said. ‘However, in Poland they are often more restrictive, which limits our competitiveness’. He conceded, however, that in exceptional situations such overregulation may be justified.

Wojciech Arszewski, Public Affairs Director at UPS Poland, provided examples from the pharmaceutical sector, where European regulations leave room for interpretation, allowing individual countries to add their own restrictions.