DPA
Mercedes-Benz Bank: The cancellation rules in the car loan contracts of the bank are probably not objectionable. Bad luck for diesel drivers, who hoped in this detour, to be able to return their now unloved diesel
By revocation out of the credit agreement – this goal has a number of car owners who want to get rid of their diesel again. They get support from a protection community, which complains about inadmissible clauses in contracts. But is that durable in court?
In the first proceeding for a model determination action in Germany before the higher regional court (OLG) Stuttgart the chances for the plaintiffs disappear. The court on Friday not only questioned the admissibility, but also expressed doubts in the statement of grounds for the lawsuit. The Stuttgart proceedings concern car loan agreements of the Mercedes-Benz Bank.
As a plaintiff, the Schutzgemeinschaft für Bankkunden seeks to ensure that the revocation rules in the bank agreements are declared inadmissible, and that the deadlines are therefore also obsolete. Then, so hope car owners, they could make the business even after years and undo their cars – not only, but especially now unpopular diesel. Lawyers also speak of a “cancellation wild card”. The Mercedes-Benz Bank considers the model claim unfounded. A decision should be made on March 20.
The presiding judge stated on Friday according to preliminary legal opinion not only that the revocation rules in question are not objectionable for the consumers. He also requested information to prove the admissibility of the action. A controversial point is whether the plaintiff club has enough members at all and if they do not pursue their own interests as lawyers.
List with 350 anonymous members is not enough for the judge
“Not every club should be allowed to lead such a process,” said the presiding judge on Friday in Stuttgart. The legislator wanted to prevent so that a complaint industry is created. The submitted anonymised list of 350 members was not submitted to the court as evidence. The lawyers of the association had argued that they wanted to protect their members from landing on “blacklists” of banks.
According to the Federal Office of Justice, around 680 vehicle owners have joined the lawsuit of the Schutzgemeinschaft für Bankkunden – the legislature has at least 50 supporters of a model declaration action. However, only a good 140 of the registered persons could be considered as justified after a first assessment, so the judge. In addition to duplicate entries, in many cases there is also a lack of evidence that a loan agreement exists at all.
Also read: 300,000 diesel owners sue against Volkswagen
“It’s just not about diesel, driving bans, loss of value or something,” said the judge. “It’s not about revocation of a car sales contract.” What matters is loan agreements.
Submitting a designation claim has only been possible since last November. Consumer advocates can sue for companies representative of many affected companies. The consumers themselves bear no financial risk.
A similar sample claim of the same protective association against the VW Bank, the judges at the OLG Braunschweig have not yet accepted. They lack sufficient evidence of the number of club members and the statutory purpose of the association. Therefore, the Federal Court of Justice must soon deal with this question.
So far, there are only two model procedures. The clearly known is about the lawsuit against Volkswagen. With it the consumer centers want to enforce that car owners, who are affected by the diesel scandal, are compensated for the depreciation of their vehicles, There is no date for this procedure.
dpa