Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2015, when Banco Popular was still an independent bank; the ruling and circumstances described are of that time. Banco Popular was resolved and sold to Banco Santander in June 2017 and later absorbed by it. Banco Popular was resolved and absorbed by Banco Santander in 2017. This 2015 article is not legal advice.
The Marbella Court of First Instance sets a precedent. A savings account holder from San Pedro de Alcántara (Málaga) has won back €292.93 after five years of paying incorrect fees.
The Marbella Court of First Instance has ordered Banco Popular, in a final ruling (judgment 95/2015 of 7 May), to refund a customer 70% of the maintenance and administration fees charged on his savings account over the past five years, finding that they had been charged improperly.
The bank was ordered, under Article 217 of the Civil Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil), to refund its customer at its branch in the Málaga town of San Pedro Alcántara the sum of €292.93 in incorrect fees charged between 31 March 2009 and 3 December 2013, as was made public today.
Horacio de León-Sotelo, the Marbella lawyer (bar number 9,176) who led the case, considers that “this ruling is very important, because it proves what many customers know but perhaps cannot demonstrate: that many banks charge inflated, illegitimate and irregular fees without justification“.
Mr León-Sotelo encourages all bank customers to review their savings account contracts, “since many of the charges being applied do not match those originally agreed between the parties”.
In the case behind this ruling, the Banco Popular customer first went to his branch several times. The branch referred him to the bank’s online customer service office, which in turn sent him back to the branch, and at no point was the bank willing to resolve the complaint, after almost five years of applying incorrect charges.
Featured image: P4K1T0, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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