Warsaw court rules AI-generated voice in advert infringed voice-over artist's rights

The Regional Court in Warsaw (Sąd Okręgowy w Warszawie) upheld, on Friday 13 November 2026, the claim brought by voice-over artist Jarosław Łukomski against the company JFC Polska. The dispute concerned an online advert for domestic sewage treatment plants, which used a voice similar to Łukomski's. He says he did not record the material, did not consent to taking part in the campaign and was not paid for the commercial use of his voice.

The company denies that it deliberately infringed the artist's rights. Its president, Mirosław Majewski, said the advert did not use Łukomski's name, surname or image.

The court's assessment

The court found that the advert, with its AI-generated voice, amounted to a deepfake: material created using artificial intelligence that is meant to give the impression it comes from a specific person. A court-appointed expert assessed that, to an average listener, the two voices are misleadingly similar. In the reasons for the judgment, the judge, Sylwia Wit vel Wilk, stressed that what matters is whether viewers could believe the content came from the person being imitated.

What the court ordered

The company must:

• publish an apology for the unlawful use of the voice-over artist's voice,
• permanently remove the video material featuring the AI-generated voice and not use it in future,
• pay Łukomski 30,000 zloty in damages with interest, plus over 17,000 zloty in compensation,
• cover the costs of the case.

The damages awarded are lower than those requested in the claim. The court pointed, among other things, to doubts about how the artist's losses had been valued.

A precedent

This is the first dispute of its kind in Poland concerning the protection of a voice cloned using AI. Łukomski's lawyer, Tomasz Ejtminowicz, described the case as a precedent. Łukomski himself said he hopes the precedent will in time find its way into Polish law. The ruling is not yet final.