The Court of Appeals in Krakow – 1^st Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding judge:           Marek Boniecki, Court of Appeals Judge

Judges:                           Grzegorz Krężołek, Court of Appeals Judge

                                        Sławomir Jamróg, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

having examined on 7 September 2020 in Krakow at the hearing the group action filed by Z. R. acting as the representative of the group consisting of: [data of 25 group members] against the State Treasury – the National Water Management Holding Polish Waters in Warsaw [Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie w Warszawie] (previously the State Treasury – the Director of the Regional Board for Water Management in Krakow) and the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship for establishment of the defendants’ liability,

The Court of Appeals in Krakow – 1^st Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding judge:          Marek Boniecki, Court of Appeals Judge

Judges:                          Grzegorz Krężołek, Court of Appeals Judge

                                       Sławomir Jamróg, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

having examined on 7 September 2020 in Krakow at the hearing the group action filed by Z. R. acting as the representative of the group consisting of: [data of 25 group members] against the State Treasury – the National Water Management Holding Polish Waters in Warsaw [Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie w Warszawie] (previously the State Treasury – the Director of the Regional Board for Water Management in Krakow) and the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship for establishment of the defendants’ liability,

The Court of Appeals in Łódź 1^st Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:           Małgorzata Dzięciołowska, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

Judges:                            Jacek Pasikowski, Court of Appeals Judge

Jarosław Pawlak, Regional Court Judge (delegated)

having examined on 9^th June 2020 in Łódź at the hearing in camera the group action filed by (…) in W. against (…) Spółka Akcyjna with its registered office in W., for the establishment of the defendant’s liability,

on the plaintiff’s motion of 29^th May 2020 for security, filed after the issuance of a judgement of the Court of Appeals in Łódź of 9^th March 2020, in the case with file ref. no I ACa 80/19, regarding the plaintiff’s complaint against the judgement of the Regional Court in Łódź of 19^th October 2018, file ref. no I C 519/16,

The Regional Court in Warsaw 20^th Commercial Division with the following ruling bench:

Judge:             Łukasz Oleksiuk, District Court Judge (delegated)

having examined on 29^th May 2020 in Warsaw at a hearing in camera the case filed by (…) sp. z o.o. with its registered office in W. against (…) Limited (…) sp. z o.o. in W., against (…) (…) in N. (C.) for the protection of copyrights and related rights in group proceedings,

The Regional Court in Warsaw 4^th Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:             Karol Smaga, Regional Court Judge (rapporteur)

Judges:                              Agnieszka Derejczyk, Regional Court Judge

 Tomasz Jaskłowski, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 1^st April 2020 in Warsaw at the hearing in camera the case filed by the Municipal Consumer Ombudsman in O. against Bank (…) S.A. with its registered office in W. for payment,

/on the subject of the composition of the group/

1. Claims based on the same factual basis are claims, the factual basis of which are the same or claims whose relevant factual circumstances are common. The abovementioned “commonality” should be interpreted widely. The requirement of the same or equal factual basis of the claims does not mean that the factual basis of the lawsuit consists of identical circumstances, but their relevant similarity is sufficient.

2. The essence of group proceedings is the gathering of many entities’ claims in one proceeding. Such a cumulation is justified due to the economics of the proceedings and the pointlessness of conducting many similar cases. Group proceedings are to be a special procedural institution to resolve more and more frequent conflicts which a larger number of people are involved in. The function of the proceedings is, among others, increasing the efficiency of examining cases regarding the same legal and factual issues, by including the assessment of these issues in one proceeding. This allows the courts to be relieved from the repeated and time-consuming judgement of analogous issues constituting the premises for many claims submitted by individual group members and eliminates the risk of incompatible judicature on these issues.

3. The object of the group proceedings aimed at the establishment of the defendant’s liability, are the only circumstances common for all group members, not individual circumstances concerning particular group members, which will be examined in subsequent individual proceedings.

1. The assumption that the mere fact that a judge incurred an obligation resulting from the credit agreement of various nature, e.g. in PLN, by definition means that they are not impartial and are obligated to recuse themselves from examining any pending case between the borrowers and the bank, leads to consequences that are contrary to the public interest and detrimental for the justice system.
2. The concept of the defendant’s liability under Article 2.3 of Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings has a specific autonomous meaning, other than in Article 318 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, as well as in Article 189 of CCP, which is determined by the purpose and functions of the group proceedings as specific proceedings that should ease and improve the resolving of conflicts.
3. The obligation to repay the amount of a used credit in specified repayment terms is the borrowers’ main performance. A valorization clause affects the amount of such performance. Stipulating such a clause in a contract cannot be deemed to be an action falling within the freedom of contract under Article 353(1) of Polish Civil Code, but gross exceeding the limits of that freedom.
4. The moment relevant to decide whether a particular person is a consumer is the moment of performance of the legal act.
5. The valorization or indexation clause is a main contractual provision. Unlike the currency spread clause, that clause is the essentialia negoti of the examined contracts.
6. A gross violation of the consumer’s interests should be understood as an unjustified disproportion, to the consumer’s disadvantage, between their rights and obligations in a specific contractual relationship. Acting contrary to good practices (in the scope of shaping the content of the contractual relationship) means that the second party (consumer’s contractual partner) creates such contractual clauses which harm the contractual balance between the parties to the relationship.

The Regional Court in Warsaw 21^st Division of Labour and Social Insurance with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:            Małgorzata Kosicka, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 6^th March 2020, at the hearing in camera , the case brought by R. L. and 374 members of the group against the State Treasury represented by the Minister of Interior, substituted by the State Treasury Prosecutor’s Office, for compensation,

The Supreme Court with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:            Roman Trzaskowski, Supreme Court Judge

Judges:                            Monika Koba, Supreme Court Judges (rapporteur)

Krzysztof Pietrzykowski, Supreme Court Judge

in the case filed by Z. R. acting as a representative of the group consisting of: (…) against the State Treasury – the State Water Enterprise ‘Wody Polskie’ in Warsaw [Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie w Warszawie] and the (…) Voivodeship for the establishment of the defendants’ liability,

having examined at the hearing at the Civil Chamber on 27^th February 2020 the legal issue presented by the Court of Appeals in (…) in the decision of 28^th June 2019, file ref. no. I ACa (…),

The Regional Court in Warsaw 3^rd Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:            Joanna Kruczkowska, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                            Joanna Bitner, Regional Court Judge

Andrzej Lipiński, District Court Judge (delegated)

having examined on 16^th January 2020 in Warsaw at the hearing the case filed by A. R. – group representative against (…) Związek (…) in W., for payment: