Another success for our client – Swiss franc loan agreement invalidate

Before the court of second instance, the bank argued that the agreement was valid because the bank’s margin could be eliminated from the contractual provision governing the determination of the CHF exchange rate. The elimination would result in the CHF purchase/sale rate being set as the average exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland. This measure eliminates the bank’s discretion in setting the exchange rate and refers to an objective indicator, i.e. the NBP exchange rate. The bank argued that such a measure is permitted by the CJEU judgment in case C-19/21 and the Supreme Court judgment of June 1, 2022, II CSKP 364/22.
The Court of Appeal in Katowice did not share the Bank’s arguments and ruled that the margin does not constitute an independent contractual provision that would allow the bank’s margin (the prohibited part of the agreement) to be “separated” from the permitted part (the average exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland). It therefore ruled that the margin + the average exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland constitute a single provision and that it is not possible to delete only the margin.
In summary, GE Money Bank’s CHF-indexed agreement from 2008 was declared invalid and the bank is obliged to return to our client all funds that he transferred to the bank as a result of the agreement.

-Jan Saklawski, legal adviser, partner of the firm

The case was handled by attorney Mateusz Kołodziejak and legal advisor Jan Sakławski on behalf of the Law Firm.