EU court to rule on the rights of Polish borrowers

Siemianowice Śląskie, Warsaw and Lublin – courts from these cities addressed to the Court of Justice of the European Union questions concerning bank loan cases in 2018. The issues in question include handling of prohibited contractual clauses and credit facility costs in the event of early repayment.

Last Monday, the Official Journal of the European Union noted registration of another preliminary question concerning a court case in Poland (case C-383/18), with a court in Lublin inquiring about reimbursement of costs in the event of early repayment of a credit facility. The previous questions submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union by Polish judges, meanwhile, concerned unfair contract clauses.
According to Marcin Szymański, partner in the law firm Drzewiecki Tomaszek, the practice of inquiring with the Court of Justice is by all means a commendable one, indubitably furthering integration of Polish jurisprudence with the European legal order. Until recently, Polish courts were loath to make similar inquiries; until 2017, they did so less frequently than the courts in Bulgaria and Romania. “The new questions may bring about a state of affairs where Polish consumers begin to enjoy protections similar to their counterparts in Germany, or at least in Spain. For my part, I see no rational basis why these protections should be lower”, Szymański comments. Bernadeta Kasztelan-Świetlik, partner in GESSEL, meanwhile, expresses certainty that Court of Justice of the European Union rulings will be of considerable importance to the market. (…)

The full text (in Polish) is available at www.prawo.pl