The pawn shop Pfando was sentenced by the Federal Court of Justice to pay damages for usury. Pfando now speaks of an isolated case.
The pawnbroker Pfando, which has been finally sentenced to pay damages for usury, sees its business model as fundamentally confirmed. It was a “single – long ago and not comparable – individual case,” said a law firm commissioned by Pfando on Thursday on request. “However, there have been no comparable cases in the past.”
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had confirmed in the last instance that a Pfando customer had been cheated and that the man was entitled to compensation. It is a “usury-like business”.
The special thing about Pfando’s business model is that customers in need of money get cash for their car and can still drive it for a while (“cash & drive”). In the specific case, however, that was not very advantageous: the man had sold his BMW, which was worth almost 14,000 euros, to Pfando for 5,000 euros and then rented it back for a total of almost 4,500 euros. In the end, the car was auctioned off by Pfando. According to the BGH, all of this suggests “a reprehensible attitude on the part of the defendants”.
A total of four cases
There were a total of four cases in which the lower court had assumed that the contracts were void due to a violation of the trade regulations. According to the Supreme Court, this is not the case. The other three cases were referred back so that the competent Higher Regional Court can examine whether there is usury here as well.
The Erfurt lawyer Holger Schilling, who looks after a three-digit number of ex-Pfando customers, said after the verdict that he assumed that this was the case in each of his cases.
“Our client does not share this assessment,” said the law firm for Pfando. The decision has “no impact on their entrepreneurial freedom”. “Of course, our client respects the legal opinion on this subject and will adhere even more closely to the requirements of the case law in the future.”
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
