In order to provide financial relief to consumers who had become unemployed or were on short-time work as a result of the pandemic, a statutory deferral of loan installments for consumer credit agreements was passed at the beginning of 2020 (cf. Section 2 2nd COVID-19-Justice Accompanying Act). Nevertheless, some banks continued to charge their customers debit interest even during the deferral period. Subsequently, the Association for Consumer Information (Verein für Konsumenteninformation) filed a lawsuit against this practice. This lawsuit has now been upheld by the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH). According to the ruling, there should be no burden on consumers during the deferral period. The banks now have three months to refund the overpaid interest. (3Ob189/21x)
Consumers to be repaid debit interest for deferred loans
