HUGO helps Germans claim back unlawful bank account management fees

German bank customers have been the victim of unlawful bank account maintenance fees for years.  There’s good news for German consumers, whose rights have not been protected adequately, since now they have the right to reclaim their overpaid fees retrospectively. 

How so? On the 27th of April, 2021, the Supreme Court of Germany issued a judgment stating that bank account maintenance fees cannot be increased without obtaining explicit consent.

Handling every case individually is often time-consuming and expensive to manage, but now there’s a solution for that. It’s being co-developed by legal tech startup HUGO.legal, German Ph.D. candidate and Dipl.-Jur. Nicolas Thöne, LL.M, and a group of experienced lawyers. 

The lawbot allows to collectively gather all the claims and take them to court – at no risk, no cost. Only in the case of reimbursement is there a profit-sharing fee of 25% – otherwise, the consumer won’t pay a cent. So you can only win!

“The benefit of a group action would stand in the fact that it is possible to present thousands of claims via one entity, meaning that we would not overburden the court system with an enormous amount of individual claims. Not to mention that cost-wise, it is much more efficient to have one entity pursuing the claim. This also means there are much more benefits for the user.” said Erki Pisuke, the COO of HUGO.

“Through our engine, consumers get the access to justice that they deserve because usually, they would not dare to go to a lawyer with such a “minor” claim. We help them pursue even this”, added Nicolas Thoene, Research Assistant at Leibniz University Hannover.

German bank customers who have been the victim of unlawful bank account maintenance fees can start their claim process at hugo.legal/de/kontogebuehren

BACKGROUND.  ABOUT HUGO.

Award-winning legal tech startup HUGO.legal is on a mission to make access to justice possible for everyone, combining a sharing economy based marketplace of lawyers who provide legal services up to 3 times more affordable than the average hourly rate on the market and providing lawbots-as-a-service to broaden the access to affordable and free of charge legal services for people in need. HUGO also supports lawyers’ work by providing them with a more efficient client management tool, work automation, and a lawbot-assistant to minimize their non-billable hours. 

HUGO’s lawbots are now available and free to use in Baltics and in Poland, HUGO is bringing new bots on the market every month. HUGO’s lawbots help people with common widespread legal problems like illegal debt collection claims, labor disputes, maintenance action, claims for refund or compensation, and many more.

In Estonia, HUGO.legal is the largest legal service platform – a marketplace of lawyers that connects consumers and small & medium-sized businesses in need of legal services to in-depth legal experts at an affordable price. 

HUGO.legal concluded a contract with the Estonian Ministry of Justice, receiving a grant of up to 3.5 million euros for providing an infrastructure to offer affordable legal services for Estonian residents and is the largest legal service platform in Estonia. 

HUGO.legal was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Artur Fjodorov, Erki Pisuke, and Age Viks. So far, HUGO has offered free of charge and affordable legal services to more than 50 000 customers, which form around 4% of the Estonian population. 92% of HUGOs customers would suggest HUGO to their friend in need of legal services.