Graz lawyer Andreas Kaufmann heads the European Consumer Protection Association, which he founded in June. He is currently helping borrowers to unexpected money. Because all fees charged by banks are illegal, as the Supreme Court has decided!
Andreas Kaufmann is a lawyer in Graz and specializes in construction and real estate law, as well as corporate and sustainability law. He also teaches at the Law Institute of the University of Graz. These extensive tasks are not enough for the lawyer, who is widely active in Europe. That is why he fulfilled a sincere wish at the beginning of June and founded the European Consumer Protection Association (EKV). “The network consists of numerous business partners and is growing and growing. This allows us to cover many positions.” For example, people can compete against supposedly overwhelming opponents for free. Only when money actually flows in does the club keep a small part to finance itself.
This is easy to explain using a recent example: In January, the Supreme Court (OGH) published a ruling that is of utmost importance to millions of Austrians. “I am surprised that the verdict has had so little widespread impact,” says Kaufmann. The decision is based on the fact that all loan processing fees can be reclaimed. This applies to both current loans and loans that have already been repaid, and this applies retroactively for up to 30 years! “Just like with apartments with the rent, everything has to be paid with loans with the interest on the loan,” Kaufmann explains. If you look at the loan agreement, items such as ‘loan processing fees’, ‘collection fees’, ‘transfer fees’ and ‘account management fees’ suddenly appear. The choice of words is sometimes very adventurous.
There is often no transparency when it comes to loans
And that is precisely the crux of the matter: “The Consumer Protection Act states that there must be transparency. That is not the case here. The processing costs for loans alone often amount to between two and four percent of the total amount borrowed. You can reclaim this, including four percent interest. Together with the other non-transparent fees, this often amounts to thousands of euros,” says Kaufmann, chairman of the EKV.
‘Krone’ reader Hans-Christian I. already has experience with the EKV of Andreas Kaufmanns: ‘I recently got 13,000 euros back from two banks. In another case, I am now going to file a lawsuit with the help of the EKV.’ More information: ekv-europa.com
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
