The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has presented three further reasoned opinions. The opinions in question pertain to the disputes between consumers and Millennium Bank, ING Bank Śląski and Getin Noble Bank and concern the provisions of contracts for mortgage loans indexed to the Swiss franc

The President of UOKiK has presented three further reasoned opinions. The opinions in question pertain to the proceedings against Millennium Bank (District Court for the Mokotów district of Warsaw), ING Bank Śląski (Regional Court in Katowice) and Getin Noble Bank (Regional Court in Warsaw). In all the presently discussed cases, consumers have accused the undertakings of using unlawful indexation clauses in the contracts for mortgage loans indexed to the Swiss franc.

In their applications to UOKiK, the borrowers have challenged the provisions pertaining to the indexation of both the loan amount and loan payments. In the view of the Competition Authority, the provision contained in the contracts allow the banks to unilaterally determine the buy and sell rates for the Swiss franc in its exchange rate table which are then used for the purposes of calculating both the loan amount and the amounts of capital and interest payments. The consumers are not being informed on what basis the banks determine the rates in question. This conduct constitutes an abuse of the privileged position which the banks enjoy as professional entities and the dominant parties under the contracts concluded with borrowers. For the above reason, in the view of the President of UOKiK, the clauses in question must be considered both unlawful and inconsistent with acceptable practices.

In the view of the President of UOKiK, where the impugned provisions pertaining to indexation are considered to be abusive by a court of law, this could lead to the entire mortgage loan contracts being declared invalid. However, the Competition Authority takes the view that a judgement declaring the invalidity of a contract should only be made where the consumer fully accepts this solution.

The reasoned opinions of the President of the Competition Authority pertain to cases no. I C 1673/16, II C 747/16 and XXV C 2022/15 – disputes between consumers and Millennium Bank, ING Bank Śląski and Getin Noble Bank. The President of UOKiK may issue a reasoned opinion in all cases pertaining to consumer rights protection, not just in cases which concern financial services.

The legal assessment presented by the Competition Authority may not be applied to any other cases, even where such cases are ostensibly similar. In each given case, the President of UOKiK performs an assessment of the factual and legal circumstances of the case, the applicable case law as well as the application filed by the claimants. The reasoned opinions issued so far are available online on the website of the Competition Authority: https://uokik.gov.pl/istotny_poglad_w_sprawie.php.

Reasoned opinions in consumer cases – the rules

• A reasoned opinion in a given case is a written opinion of the President of UOKiK in which it presents its arguments and views which are relevant to the given dispute, based on the specific factual and legal circumstances of the case before it. For the above reason, the assessment contained in a reasoned opinion may not be applied to any other cases.
• A reasoned opinion is only issued with respect to a case pending before a court of law.
• It may only be issued where doing so is considered to be in the public interest.
• A reasoned opinion always pertains to a dispute between a consumer and an undertaking.
• The President of UOKiK may present a reasoned opinion at its own initiative, at the request of the consumer or undertaking, or at the request of the court.

Additional information for the media:

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