SENT system fines and penalties: what happens if you don't comply

Published September 2026

The SENT system exists to let Poland's customs authorities track sensitive goods in real time, and the penalties for getting it wrong are designed to be felt. Unlike many compliance regimes, SENT fines aren't limited to the company that "forgot" — they can land on the sender, the recipient, the carrier, and even the driver individually, each for their own part of the process. Here's what the actual numbers look like.

The big one: undeclared or grossly incorrect shipments

If a shipment subject to SENT monitoring isn't declared at all, or is declared with data so wrong it amounts to non-compliance, the fine is up to 46% of the value of the goods, with a minimum of 20,000 PLN (roughly €4,700). This is the figure that makes SENT worth taking seriously even for a single shipment — a load worth a modest amount can already trigger a fine well above the minimum once the 46% threshold is calculated.

GPS and geolocation fines

The carrier is responsible for continuous geolocation data being transmitted for the entire journey. Getting this wrong carries its own, separate set of fines:

• 10,000 PLN — carrier penalty for failing to ensure geolocation data is transmitted at all.
• 5,000–7,500 PLN — for a locator that malfunctions or stops transmitting for more than an hour.
• 5,000 PLN — driver penalty for not activating the locator, or continuing the journey knowing the device has failed.

The practical rule that trips people up: if the GPS signal drops for more than an hour, the driver is required to stop at the nearest safe location and wait until the issue is resolved, rather than continuing and hoping it reconnects.

Inaccurate data — even without malicious intent

A shipment that is declared, but with inaccurate details — the wrong CN code, an incorrect weight, or the wrong volume — can still draw a fine, typically in the 5,000–10,000 PLN range. This is one of the more common ways businesses get fined, precisely because it doesn't require anyone to have skipped the declaration on purpose — a mistyped decimal or the wrong unit of measure is enough.

Who actually pays?

Because SENT treats the sender, recipient, carrier, and driver as separately responsible for their own part of the declaration, more than one party in the same shipment can be fined for the same incident. A sender who gave the carrier the wrong weight, and a carrier who didn't flag an obviously malfunctioning locator, can both end up penalized out of a single shipment.

How to avoid these fines in practice

Most SENT fines come down to the same handful of preventable mistakes: a CN code that doesn't match the actual goods, a weight or volume typed in the wrong format, an address or border-crossing name that isn't recognized by PUESC, or a locator nobody checked before departure. Using a fixed list of official CN codes and border crossings — rather than free-text entry — removes most of the "inaccurate data" category of fines before the declaration is ever submitted.