In order to successfully sue a bank to establish the invalidity of a credit agreement and the payment of all instalments, interest and fees paid thereunder, it is necessary to be a consumer. This is an essential condition to ensure that protection from the courts is available. However, depending on the specific situation, this is not the only condition.

During the initial analysis of the loan agreement, we inform clients of all possibilities and impediments that may arise during the legal process. Therefore, if you have any doubts, we encourage you to present them in a telephone conversation, which will start a possible cooperation with the Law Firm in order to recover the money paid to the bank in execution of the invalid credit agreement.

Each bank formulates prohibited contractual provisions in a slightly different way. However, in order to give an idea of potentially problematic provisions, we point out examples of provisions that have been declared illicit by Polish courts: “In the case of a Credit Facility granted in the foreign currency CHF/EUR/USD, the amount of the Credit Facility will be paid out in zlotys at the purchase rate of the currency in question, in accordance with the Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A. Table of Exchange Rates for Mortgage Products applicable at the Bank on the day the Credit Facility/Tranche is disbursed.”
“The denominated credit, including interest, shall be repaid in PLN, in instalments specified in the credit currency from the Credit Agreement, according to the conversion as of the date the funds are credited to the Borrower’s bank account, at the selling rate for foreign currencies established according to the Exchange Rate Table in force at the Bank at the time of the above operation.” Contractual clauses tying the amount of credit disbursed and/or instalments repaid to the exchange rate of the foreign currency resulting from the exchange rate table of the specific bank are usually treated as prohibited contractual clauses.

The above description is a broad generalisation and simplification of the problem and does not constitute legal advice, but is intended to help borrowers find out whether their credit agreements contain prohibited contractual clauses. In order to verify precisely whether this is indeed the case, we encourage you to contact our law firm directly.

According to Article 221 of the Civil Code, “a consumer is defined as a natural person who makes a legal transaction with an entrepreneur which is not directly connected with his/her economic or professional activity”. The cited definition does not mean, however, that any connection between the property purchased with the loan capital and the business excludes the possibility of benefiting from consumer protection. Therefore, if you have any doubts, we encourage you to present them in a telephone conversation, which will start a possible cooperation with the Law Firm in order to recover the money paid to the bank in execution of the invalid credit agreement. According to recent CJEU case-law, the concept of “consumer” within the meaning of Directive 93/13 includes a person who has concluded a credit agreement for a use partly relating to his economic or professional activity and partly not relating to that activity, together with another borrower who is not acting in the course of his economic or professional activity, where the purpose of the economic or professional activity is so limited as not to be predominant in the overall context of the agreement. Thus, if part of the credit funds have been used for business purposes, it is necessary to analyse the specific situation before bringing a claim. For an analysis, we encourage you to contact the Firm directly.

Depending on the borrower’s situation and the strategy chosen by the borrower (from those proposed by the Firm), it is possible to recover all the money paid to the bank and to stop performing the credit agreement, or to recover only the overpayments resulting from the presence of prohibited contractual clauses in the agreement and to continue performing the agreement without taking the clauses into account.

According to publicly available statistics, franc debtors in 2022 won around 97% of the cases that were finalised last year. Despite such optimistic statistics, we can in no way guarantee that the case will definitely end in a win. Bearing in mind that each case is different and, therefore, the course of the legal proceedings may also be different, we always keep clients informed of the risks associated with a particular borrower’s situation.

Yes. The voluntarily concluded agreement forms the basis of the borrower’s claims against the bank as a consumer. The agreement is subject to the court’s assessment of the provisions contained therein.

Yes The complete repayment of the credit does not prevent an action against the bank. It has an impact on the content of the lawsuit and the demands contained therein, but for the borrower it can only have positive effects, such as not having to decide on further instalment payments during the process.

The provision of information by the bank about the risks of a franc credit, or even the signing of a statement by the borrower that he is aware of the risks, does not exclude the possibility of suing the bank. The extent and manner in which the information is communicated is important. Typically, this information was inadequate and banks sought to reassure borrowers by suggesting that there was little exchange rate risk. In our experience, all of the francophiles we have represented so far have only been informed in a superficial way and therefore cannot be considered to have knowingly assumed the risk. Therefore, receiving any information from the bank about the so-called “exchange rate risk” will not prevent you from winning a case against the bank to declare the franking credit agreement invalid.

This affects the content of the lawsuit, but does not prevent the bank from being sued. We approach each case on a case-by-case basis and explain in detail the implications of the change that occurred after the loan was taken out for a possible court case. We therefore encourage you to contact the Law Firm directly.

In principle, it is possible to sue the bank. However, this is one of those situations that, in particular, must be considered on a case-by-case basis. We therefore encourage you to contact the Law Firm directly.

In its judgment of 15 June 2023, the CJEU made it clear that the provisions of Directive 93/13 preclude the courts from refusing to secure a consumer’s claim by suspending the obligation to repay loan instalments. Accordingly, Polish courts should grant an application to secure a claim by suspending the obligation to pay instalments for the duration of a lawsuit to declare the credit agreement invalid. Thus allowing the borrowers to stop making instalment payments until the legal proceedings are finalised.

The role of a trial attorney is to look after the client’s interests without involving the client in the litigation over and above making key decisions in the case based on the position presented by the attorney. Borrowers are primarily concerned with getting their money back, so the attorney’s job is to seek the most favourable outcome. Thus, the borrower’s participation in the proceedings before the court is usually reduced to attending one of the last hearings at which a party is heard. All other measures, depending on the choice of the borrower, are discussed with him in detail or he is merely informed about them. However, it is the borrower’s right to attend the hearings and to keep up to date with the correspondence in the case, so we allow ongoing contact with the solicitor in charge of the case to explain to the client what stage their case is at.

In principle, it is possible to sue the bank. However, this is one of those situations that, in particular, must be considered on a case-by-case basis. We therefore encourage you to contact the Law Firm directly.

All you need to do is collect all the documents you received at the bank at the time of signing the contract and collect from the bank a statement of all the payments you have made so far and make an appointment at the law firm. We handle franking cases from outside Krakow, so we also offer the possibility to meet online by appointment and send scans of documents from the bank by email.