Decision of the Court of Appeal in Gdańsk, 1st Civil Division, dated January 25, 2021
I ACz 455/20

1. When certifying a group proceeding, the court only decides on its admissibility and does not examine other issues related to the group proceeding, including whether or not individual members belong to the group. The assessment of the substantive merits of the group proceeding also falls outside the scope of the assessment of its admissibility, as this is only carried out at a later stage of the proceeding.
2. The content of the statements attached to the statement of claim, in conjunction with the content of the statement of claim, must clearly express the will of the member of the initiative group to join the group and consent to the person of its representative bringing the action, identify the members of the group and the content and basis of the claims. It is permissible to use a reference to the statement of claim in these statements in order to indicate the claims, the circumstances justifying the claim, the circumstances justifying membership of the group, and the evidence, provided that the content of the statement of claim together with the content of the statements attached to the statement of claim enables the court to assess the admissibility of the case in group proceedings.
3. As part of the verification procedure provided for in Article 10 Section 1 of the act concerning the group proceedings, the declaration contained in the statement of claim must be relied upon. This means that a group action may only be dismissed if the initiating party does not refer to any of the legal grounds specified in Article 1 Section 2 of the act.
4. The term “same factual basis” should be understood as basing claims on similar events, which corresponds to the concept of a common factual basis constituting an element of formal joint participation. The claims pursued must therefore be homogeneous, i.e., of the same type and based on the common factual basis. Claims based on the common factual basis are claims based on the same factual basis (premise sensu stricto) or claims whose relevant factual circumstances are common (premise sensu largo). It is permissible that there may be slight differences between the individual bases of the claims, but it is essential that the relevant factual circumstances justify a demand common to all claims.
5. If it is impossible to standardize the factual basis of monetary claims for all members of the group on the above basis, such standardization must take place in subgroups of at least two persons, with reference to a formal criterion of a general nature constituting the actual basis of the common cause.

The Court of Appeal in Gdańsk, 1^st Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Marek Machnij, Judge of the Court of Appeal (Judge – Rapporteur)

Judges:                            Małgorzata Idasiak-Grodzińska, Judge of the Court of Appeal;

Karolina Sarzyńska, Regional Court Judge (delegated)

having examined on 25^th January 2021 in Gdańsk, at a session in camera, the case brought by (…) acting as a representative of a group against Bank (…) for payment, as a result of the defendant’s complaint against the decision of the Regional Court in Gdańsk of 17^th June 2020, file ref. no. XV C 871/18,

decides to:

• dismiss the complaint;
• leave the decision on the costs of the complaint proceedings to the court issuing the ruling concluding the proceedings on the merits of the case.