Case law > Decision of the Regional Court in Gdańsk 1st Civil Division of 11th September 2020

Decision of the Regional Court in Gdańsk 1st Civil Division of 11th September 2020
I C 245/15

  1. It is permissible to submit a declaration of joining the group also before the publication of the notice of commencement of group proceedings. Such a statement may not, however, be made by a group member directly to the court, bypassing the group representative.
  2. The mere fact of conducting business activity, even if the address of this activity was to be a real estate paid for with funds obtained from a loan incurred from the defendant, does not prove that the loan agreement was concluded by members of the group as entrepreneurs and not as consumers.
  3. The claims asserted in this action are based on the fact that each group member concluded with the defendant a loan agreement consisting of inadmissible contractual clauses. Certain differences in the drafting of the clause itself are irrelevant; the decisive factor should be whether, in each case, it leads to the application of an identical mechanism to all the interested members of the group. Nor does it matter how long the disputed clauses were in force in relation to each group member.
  4. The purpose of a class action may only be achieved if, in these proceedings, the issues common to the class predominate the issues relating to the group members’ individual circumstances.

The Regional Court in Gdańsk 1st Civil Division in the following ruling bench:

Presiding judge:     Karolina Sarzyńska, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                     Małgorzata Janicka, Regional Court Judge

                                  Ewa Karwowska, Regional Court Judge

Having examined on 11 September 2020 in Gdańsk at the hearing in camera the case filed by District Consumer Ombudsman in S. acting as a group representative against Bank (…) S. A. in G. for the declaration of the defendant’s liability or, alternatively, for the shaping of a legal right

hereby decides to:

I. Dismiss the defendant’s motion for the suspension of the proceedings

II. Pursuant to Article 17(1) of the Act of 17 December 2009 on pursuing claims in group proceedings, determine that the following persons are members of the group represented by the District Consumer Ombudsman in S.:

  1. subgroup 1 (first): [data of 216 group members]
  2. subgroup 2 (second): [data of 56 group members]

III. Deny group membership status to the following individuals: [19 group members by name from Nos. 1 to 19].