Unfair Contract Terms Directive, Article 2 Unfair Contract Terms Directive, Article 3, 1.

Charging customers for each withdrawal of funds from their account while these customers are already paying a monthly fee for the maintenance of their bank account is a prohibited contractual clause.

The Claimant had an account in BIG Bank Gdanski S.A., for the service of which he paid 2.50 PLN (Polish Zloty) a month. In addition, he was charged 2 PLN for each withdrawal of cash from his account. There was no charge for deposits into the account. The Claimant brought proceedings against the Bank, claiming that the charge for withdrawals constitutes a prohibited contractual clause.

The Court held that charging the customers for each withdrawal while they already paid a charge for servicing their account was indeed a prohibited contractual clause. Such a policy, according to the Court, led to the bank obtaining undue profits and to decreasing of the costs of servicing customer accounts. While the Court confirmed that the bank was entitled to charge its customers for various services on the account (this according to Article 110 of the Banking Law), the particular charge in question significantly breached consumer interests and shaped their rights and obligations in a manner contrary to good faith (here one can see the reference to Article 385.1 of the Civil Code which specifies the requirements for a clause to be declared prohibited). The customer was in this situation paying twice for the same service.

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