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Hungarian commercial banks do not want to implement

the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union?!

Budapest, 16th May, 2025

The recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), C-630/23, dated 30 April 2025, clearly and unequivocally states that:

- foreign currency (FX) denominated borrowing contracts (with misleading banking terminology: “FX loans”) with consumers containing unfair terms (in particular, if they relate to exchange rate risk or unilateral contract modification) are in breach of European Union law and are not binding on consumers;

- all FX denominated borrowing contracts containing an exchange rate indexation mechanism are invalid, consumers are only obliged to repay the capital to the banks,

- according to the judgment, national courts and authorities are obliged to disregard these provisions and restore the consumer to the situation before the infringement;

- the CJEU judgment does not concern a specific case, but contains general findings that are applicable throughout the European Union, in all Member States, including Hungary, and apply to all unfair contracts, regardless of the circumstances or time of their conclusion;

- EU law takes precedence over national law and has direct effect on banks, Member States and the judiciary.

Despite this, commercial banks in Hungary do not wish to implement the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and it appears that even the Hungarian Supreme Court (the Kúria), is looking for an “escape route” to save banks that use unfair contractual terms.

In the C-630/23. CJEU case, Dr. László MARCZINGÓS, a lawyer who successfully represented Hungarian consumers, sent a proposal for a legislative amendment to the representatives of the parliamentary parties, which would prevent tens of thousands of lawsuits; it would exempt consumers from having to pay the advance of  high litigation costs, and the courts from being overloaded due to the mass of lawsuits, and would ensure legal settlement for consumers.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government-controlled public media trivializes the Consumer Protection Directive and the CJEU judgement, claiming that “it is only a case-by-case decision”, so it does not need to be applied in other cases - so each affected consumer would have to sue their bank separately, under the recently significantly more difficult and expensive conditions for initiating a lawsuit.

Despite the fact that tens of thousands of lawsuits were initiated earlier and ended with consumers winning their cases in lower-level Hungarian courts – in the past two decades, not a single debtor has been able to prevail against their bank before the highest Hungarian judicial forum, the Kúria, while thousands of executions and evictions continue.

It is feared that this fate will continue to await the plundered debtors if they cannot enforce the final judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Hungary, an EU member state.

Source: Bátor Program Egyesület /Brave Program Association/ ;

              Közép-Európai Program Egyesület /Central European Program Association/

International press officer : Dr. jur. Ölveczky-Kerekes, Dávid (+36)30/417-4083, press@euprogram.hu