Agency is generally a professional relationship on both sides. The principal must be a business, and the agent must perform the agreement as part of their enterprise. Does this mean that only someone registered in the Central Registration and Information on Business (CEIDG) or the National Court Register (KRS) can be an agent?
Not necessarily. In practice, a person not entered in those registers may also act as an agent if they are independent, particularly where they:
➡️ organise their activities themselves, for example by employing staff;
➡️ bear their own costs of performing the agreement;
➡️ earn income according to the results of their work rather than merely doing the work, thereby acting at their own risk.
Even instructions from the principal do not rule out independence, provided they do not interfere excessively with how the agreement is performed. This is a fundamental distinction from employment, where subordination to the employer’s instructions is a defining feature.
In other words:
🔵 the greater the independence, the more likely the arrangement is an agency agreement;
🔵 the less independence, the more likely it is to be classified differently, for example as an employment contract.
