Alleged cartel agreements – To high debit fees – U.S. attorney wants a billion … – Süddeutsche.de

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• The U.S. attorney Michael D. home field prepares, according to a media report, a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against German banks.
• savings banks, people’s banks and private financial institutions are Affected accordingly. You should have discussed and inflated fees.

businesses fear Michael D. home field. With his firm of the New York lawyer has fought many a billion. Home field took after the accident involving the tanker Exxon Valdez, the victims of the oil Spill. He sued Texaco because of discrimination of black employees, the tobacco industry for misleading advertising. In Germany, corporations tremble when home field is: last week, the legal service provider to My Right in the exhaust gas scandal put a pattern-action lawsuit against Volkswagen – prepared by Hausfelds firm. And now the German banks are on it.

home field is preparing a billion-dollar damages lawsuit against several German banks, reported the Bild am Sonntag. savings banks, public banks and private banks such as Deutsche Bank were affected. The plaintiffs, which represents home field, to throw the banks a prohibited cartel agreements. You should have been charging excessive fees when paying with debit cards cashed.

The firm, to require fees for ten years

A representative of the firm in Germany confirmed to the Bild am Sonntag, which was an action in preparation. You represent “a number of well-known clients”. Name of the firm not named. According to the newspaper it’s supposed to be big oil companies and well-known trade company. For years, the dealer should have paid a fixed fee of 0.3 percent of sales to the banks, when a customer with a debit paid card. Only under pressure from the Federal cartel office, they have committed themselves in the year 2014, the retailer may negotiate the fees with them.

According to the Federal cartel office dropped the cost by up to 40 percent. The law firm wants to claim to be the excessive charges of well retroactively for ten years. The lawsuits are soon to be in the Frankfurt district court filed. A spokesman for the German banking industry said the Bild am Sonntag there is no basis for the claim: “Apparently, an American plaintiff law firm is trying to single German trading company in a lawsuit is to drive up against the credit economy.”

It would be the first Time that the financial sector entities to be sued because of excessive fees. Last September, the credit card group Mastercard was the largest damages suit in the history of great Britain. The plaintiffs want to 14 billion pounds (equivalent to about 16.3 billion euros) of the American group – also due to the high fees. The lawsuit is a ruling by the European court of justice (ECJ) from the year 2014, was preceded, according to Mastercard between 1992 and 2008 in the international payment traffic to high fees.

What banks are allowed to ask and what not

In the case of the fees banks are creative: the statement of account or a lost debit cards, money costs often. Many of these fees are not allowed. By Harald Freiberger more…