• The President of the UOKiK initiated proceedings intended to examine whether the contracts used by BGŻ BNP Paribas, BZ WBK and Bank Millennium contained any abusive clauses.
• The actions taken by the UOKiK relate to the unclear rules for the determination of currency exchange rates.
• Based on the provisions of the contract alone, the consumer is unable to determine the manner in which the exchange rate is calculated.

The Act on competition and consumer protection confers upon the President of the UOKiK the right to initiate proceedings intended to examine whether standard form contracts used by entrepreneurs contain any abusive clauses. Until April 17, 2016, the task of examining the alleged abusive clauses fell upon the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection examined the standard forms of mortgage loan and credit contracts denominated in foreign currencies which were used by BGŻ BNP Paribas, BZ WBK and Bank Millennium. The proceedings were initiated in February and March 2017 as a result of various signals received from consumers.

The provisions that gave rise to certain doubts pertained to the method for the determination of foreign currency exchange rates applied by the banks. The provisions in question are both imprecise and discretionary in nature; for example, the currency exchange rate would be determined on the basis of the “average currency exchange rate on the interbank market” (BZ WBK, BGŻ BNP Paribas); however, there is currently no legal definition of the interbank market. Furthermore, customers who wished to check the exchange rates would face serious difficulties as the provisions of the contracts would either refer to the Reuters website (BZ WBK, Bank Millennium) – without stating the exact address thereof – or to other sites which are only accessible to banks and require an access fee to be paid by the user (BGŻ BNP Paribas).

The banks would also refer the consumers to exchange rate tables prepared by the banks themselves. However, they would not specify when or how often such tables would be compiled and published. As a result, the borrower was unable to determine the exchange rate on the basis of which the loan payments would be calculated. According to the impugned provisions, the exchange rate tables shall be published on each business day, at least once a day.

– Each and every bank, when determining the foreign currency exchange rates necessary to calculate the amounts of loan payments, must apply criteria which a customer is capable of verifying on his or her own, without recourse to paywalled websites or other inaccessible sources. The costs which the consumer bears must be based on comprehensible criteria – says Mr Marek Niechciał, President of the UOKiK.

The President of the UOKiK initiated proceedings intended to examine whether the contractual provisions applied by BGŻ BNP Paribas, BZ WBK and Bank Millennium contained any abusive clauses. These proceedings may lead to a decision in which the President may hold that any further use of the given standard form contract shall be prohibited. The maximum amount of penalty may amount to 10% of the bank’s turnover. The President of the Office may also specify the measures to be taken in order to remedy the existing effects of the infringement.

Consumers are reminded that in case of any problems which they may encounter with respect to financial services, they can rely on the support of the Financial Ombudsman.

Additional information for the media:

Press Office of the UOKiK
pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw

Phone: 695 902 088
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl

Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL