Yes, a European Account Preservation Order can be used against a Polish company and before an action is brought. The application is lodged with the court having jurisdiction to decide the dispute over the claim; for goods delivered to Poland this tends to be a Polish court, while for delivery in Slovakia under the contract, or where a Slovak court has been agreed, a Slovak court may also have jurisdiction. In Poland the order is enforced by a judicial enforcement officer (komornik) and documents for that officer must be in Polish. Without a judgment you must evidence the risk of assets being dissipated and the likelihood of success on the substance, and expect to provide security.
A Polish customer has stopped paying, does not respond to reminders, and other suppliers report that it is closing premises and changing banks. By the time you obtain a judgment there may be nothing left in the accounts. The European Account Preservation Order under Regulation (EU) No. 655/2014 exists for precisely this situation. Poland participates in it and an account with a Polish IBAN is always an account in a Member State other than Slovakia, so the cross-border requirement is satisfied.
Which court decides on the order
If you do not yet have a judgment, the order is issued by the court of the state that would also decide the dispute itself:
Where the creditor has not yet obtained a judgment, court settlement or authentic instrument, the courts of the Member State which have jurisdiction to rule on the substance of the matter in accordance with the applicable rules of jurisdiction shall be competent to issue a Preservation Order.
Jurisdiction on the substance is determined by the Brussels Ia Regulation. A Polish company may be sued in Poland (Article 4(1)) unless you have agreed exclusively on another court. In a contract of sale you may also sue in the court of the place to which the goods were, or should have been, delivered under the contract, and in the case of services where they were to be provided (Article 7(1)(b)). If under the contract you delivered the goods to a warehouse in Poland, the Polish court will have jurisdiction. If the customer collected them in Slovakia under the contract, or you agreed a Slovak court in writing in the contract (Article 25(1)), a Slovak court may issue the order. Once you have a Slovak judgment, the order is issued by the court of the state in which the judgment was given (Article 6(3) of the Preservation Order Regulation).
Where a Slovak court decides
A Polish company has no general court in Slovakia, so the Banská Bystrica District Court has jurisdiction over the application:
The Banská Bystrica District Court has jurisdiction (a) where the general court in the Slovak Republic of the person referred to in paragraph 1 cannot be determined, […]
— Section 2(3) of Act No. 54/2017 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
Without a judgment you must evidence, in addition to a real risk that recovery will be frustrated, that you are likely to succeed on the substance of your claim (Article 7). In such a case the court as a rule requires security (Article 12(1)); a Slovak court sets it at not less than one third of the amount to be preserved, and it may be provided in money, by a bank guarantee or by an irrevocable letter of credit (Section 3(1) and (2) of Act No. 54/2017 Coll.).
How the order is enforced in Poland
The order is recognised in Poland without any special procedure. Part A of the order and the bank declaration form are sent to the competent authority in Poland (Article 23(3)). According to the information provided by Poland on the European e-Justice Portal, that authority is a judicial enforcement officer (komornik sądowy), as a rule the one in whose district the debtor has its seat; the creditor may also choose the officer. For documents addressed to its authorities Poland accepts only Polish. The translation of the order into Polish is arranged by the issuing court through the Polish language version of the form (Article 23(4)), but accompanying submissions must be in Polish.
Where you do not know the Polish account
If you already have an enforceable judgment and know only that the debtor has an account in Poland, you may request in the application that the court obtain the account details through the information authority (Article 14(1)). In Poland, according to the information provided by Poland on the European e-Justice Portal, this is the Minister of Justice, who obtains the data from the central information on accounts, to which banks operating in Poland supply it at the Minister’s request. According to the same source the request is subject to a fee and must identify the debtor precisely, in the case of a company by its KRS, NIP or REGON number.
How we proceed
On the page debt recovery in Poland we describe how we coordinate the matter with a Polish advocate we work with regularly, who appears before the Polish court. Where a Slovak court has jurisdiction, we lodge the application ourselves. The conditions, the security and the time limit for bringing an action after the order is issued are discussed under the European Account Preservation Order service. Send us the contract or orders with the delivery terms and anything indicating that money is being moved; from the delivery terms we will determine which court decides on the order.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
