The consumer advice centers have suffered a setback in the legal dispute over negative interest rates.
The Leipzig Regional Court approved the Sparkasse Vogtland, which wanted to introduce a so-called custody fee on the current account for new customers and the account model for changing existing customers.
The court thus largely dismissed an action brought by the Sachsen consumer organization against a custody fee introduced by the Sparkasse.
Only for an account model for schoolchildren and students that is advertised with complete exemption from fees should no custody fee be charged (file number 05 O 640/20).
In principle, according to the court, the Sparkasse can demand a fee for the safekeeping of funds in new contracts as a special service. It should also not be disregarded that the banks incur “considerable financial burdens” by paying deposits at the European Central Bank for the safekeeping of funds in current accounts. The background to the procedure is the Sparkasse's earlier plans to charge all new private current accounts from a deposit of 5,000 euros to a custody fee of 0.7 percent from February 1, 2020.
The consumer center in Saxony was disappointed with the outcome of the proceedings and announced an appeal to the Higher Regional Court. In an earlier ruling in 2018, the Tübingen District Court declared negative interest rates on current accounts for existing customers inadmissible if an account management fee is already being charged (file number 7 K 2237/20).