The Court of Cassation rendered two series of judgments in March and April in the Helvet Immo case in favor of the borrowers, decisions hailed as “decisive legal victories” by a lawyer for the civil parties.
In this case, BNP’s credit subsidiary, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, known in France under the Cetelem brand, is implicated for having marketed, from 2008 to 2009, loans intended for tax-exempt rental investment, denominated in Swiss francs but reimbursable in euros. After the financial crisis, the single currency had stalled against the Swiss currency and more than 4,600 borrowers had seen the amounts to be repaid soar, sometimes by more than 30%.
On the criminal level, the company was sentenced in February 2020 for “misleading commercial practice” and “concealment” of this offense. She had been ordered to pay 187,500 euros – the maximum fine – and huge damages – around 130 million euros. The bank has appealed and the second trial has not yet been set.
“Decisive legal victories”
At the same time, the borrowers individually initiated proceedings before the civil courts across France in order to have their contract annulled, arguing that they contained abusive clauses. Until now, the courts had rendered several decisions in favor of the bank.
But on June 10, 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), seized by the district court of Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne) and the tribunal de grande instance of Paris, had ruled in the direction of the borrowers.
On March 30 and April 20, 2022, in ten decisions consulted by AFP, the Court of Cassation overturned the judgments of various courts of appeal, sending the files back to these courts so that they could review their copy.
Save up to 50% on your borrower insurance
These are “decisive legal victories” for Me Charles Constantin-Vallet, lawyer for more than 1,300 of the 2,300 civil parties.
They will allow “thousands of consumers affected by foreign currency loans to assert their rights (…) in order to request the outright cancellation of their contract”, he wrote in a press release. Borrowers would then only have to “repay the capital initially lent in euros, without interest or penalties”, he rejoiced.
Me Philippe Métais, lawyer for the BNP subsidiary, considered that “at this stage, nothing has been judged on the merits, it is up to the referring courts to assess what action will be taken on all these files”.
Reproduction forbidden.