Legal issues relating to financial products and services are hotly discussed in both case law and public debate. This issue is also taken up by the EU Court of Justice, which sets the directions for the interpretation of EU regulations. This directly translates into the jurisprudence of the courts of the Member States, including Polish courts. Noticing the importance of the above interpretations for customers of financial market entities, the Financial Ombudsman analyzed the rulings of the CJEU issued in 2020.
– Following and analyzing the jurisprudence of the CJEU is of great importance due to the legal nature of these judgments and the rules of their application. The Court very often emphasizes the leading role of the national court in consumer cases. According to the judges of the CJEU, the inequality between the consumer and the company can only be offset by the active intervention of a third party, independent of the parties to the contract, which is the Polish court. A good example is the judgment in the case of the Medius Law Firm, C-495/19. It emphasized that it is the court that is obliged to interpret national provisions in line with EU law – says dr. hab. Mariusz Jerzy Golecki, professor at the University of Łódź, Financial Ombudsman.
In the opinion of the Financial Ombudsman, among the issues raised in the jurisprudence of the CJEU in 2020, two issues should be highlighted. Firstly, the problem of the effects of unfair terms in consumer contracts (defined in Polish law as prohibited contractual provisions or abusive clauses), especially in loan agreements denominated and indexed in a foreign currency. Secondly, there is the question of the cost of the loan for the consumer.
Taking into account the national legal context of each of these cases, which are part of this study, it should be noted that the position of the Court of Justice always concerns the interpretation of EU law and thus this interpretation should be binding when judging by Polish courts on the basis of Polish provisions.
