Banks liable for hidden commissions

Published on 06.09.2008

The Federal High Court (BGH) decided by judgement of 10.07.2007 (Az. XI ZR 243/05) that the fund-financing bank is obligated of itself to the clearing-up of the customer, if it comes (co-causally) also by hidden commissions to the fact that the acquisition price is scarcely twice as high, as the value of the portion of the closed participation – so the comment of RA Dr. Johannes Fiala, Munich. The financing bank must then assume an immoral overreaching. If the bank is aware that additional commissions are paid for the brokerage which are not shown as sales costs in the prospectus, it shall also be obliged to provide information. This also deceives the investor about the value of the fund unit. Incidentally, capital investment fraud also comes into question here. The decisive factor here is whether the hidden commissions were paid “out of the investor’s contribution”, e.g. by including them in other expense items (e.g. B. Land acquisition costs
(Electropractor 12/2007, 1073)
Courtesy of www.elektropraktiker.de.