Decision of the Regional Court in Ł‎‎‎ódź, 1st Civil Division of 6th May 2011
II C 1693/10

1. The aim of obtaining the verdict establishing the defendant’s liability is to obtain a precedent for possible individual actions of the group members for payment, or a basis for the conclusion of a settlement between the group members and the defendant. The claim included in the statement of claims understood in such a way is of a pecuniary nature, despite the fact that it does not constitute a claim for payment. It is not necessary to indicate the amount of the claim of each of the group members in the statement of claims, and Article 2 section 3 of the Act (Polish Act on pursuing claims in group proceedings) constitutes an exception to the rule of indicating and standardising the amount of the claims of the group members resulting from Article 2 section 1 and Article 6 section 1 point 3 of the Act.
2. It may be assumed that in compliance with the rule of the freedom of contracts (Article 353¹ of the Civil Code), group members may entrust the function of the group representative to the consumer ombudsman from any city or district in the country. The consumer ombudsman is authorised, but not obligated to be the group representative and if he expresses consent to accept this function, then the issue of the territorial scope of his operation is without meaning for the further proceedings.
3. The procedural relations between the group’ representative and the group members were regulated on principle of subrogation, which means that the group representative conducting the proceedings in his own name, but on behalf of all of the group members. The group members are not parties to the group proceedings.
4. The premise of the homogeneity of the claims should be understood in such a manner that the requests (demands) resulting from them are common for all of the group members. The statement of claims must therefore include the request (demand) to grant the same form of legal protection for all of the group members.
5. The very factual basis of the statement of claims, however, constitutes the basic (initial) aggregate of facts substantiating the claim. The same factual basis of the statement of claims takes place when obtaining legal protection is connected with an identical situation or event. Whereas it is possible to speak of equal factual basis in a situation in which the claims are derived from merely similar situations and events.
6. The notion of cases regarding consumer protection also includes the establishment of contractual liability, connected with the issue of the non-performance or the improper performance of the obligation in the meaning of Article 471 of the Civil Code. In this case, we are dealing with the improper performance of obligations resulting from legal actions in the form of consumer contracts.

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