The European Justice decides today whether to declare null the IRPH index on which thousands of mortgages hang

The European judiciary is deciding today whether to annul the IRPH and, in its case, whether the Spanish bank should reimburse millions of euros to affected people because then the door would be open for claims. There are still in the Spanish state between 500,000 and more than 1,000,000 variable mortgages referring to the IRPH, 30,000 in Hegoalde.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) already ruled against the IRPH in 2020, but the verdict was not entirely clear, and in Spain the courts went ahead without annulling the index.

Now the IRPH is reaching the ECJ after a case in Palma de Mallorca and could annul it. The European Commission and the General Advocate of the European Union are in favor of declaring the IRPH clause illegal in accordance with Directive 93/13 EC, but this guarantees nothing as has happened so far.

As early as September 10, 2019, the General Counsel of the CJEU, Maciej Szpunar, estimated that the Mortgage Loan Reference Index (IRPH) was not transparent due to the mere fact that it was official and therefore judges could examine whether or not it is abusive. This report contradicted the 2017 Supreme Court ruling and therefore favored the interests of those affected by the index.

March 3, 2020 the CJEU agreed with consumers with mortgages referencing the IRPH index by ruling that Spanish judges must check whether they have been misused, making it possible to claim damages from those affected, if any.

However, on October 21, 2020 the High Council ruled out that the four mortgages referenced by the IRPH that it analyzed were abusive, despite discovering a lack of transparency in contracting, when the bank failed to report the evolution of the index in the previous two years .