Supreme Court of Russia considered the case of the ‘protective’ tariffs of bank

The Economic Board considered acase on the complaint of the company, which considered the bank's collection of a commission for a non-cash transfer of funds against individuals to be unjustified enrichment. At the same time, the lower courts consistently rejected the claim, but Supreme Court of Russia looked at the situation differently.

The reason for the dispute was the fact that the All-Russian Bank for the Development of Regions was collecting a commission for transferring money from the account of EKOIL LLC to two individuals under loan agreements previously concluded with them.

The commission amounted to 9% of the total amount and in monetary terms exceeded 170 thousand rubles.

Rejecting the claim, the lower instances referred to the fact that the disputed transactions corresponded to the characteristics of money transfers, which are subject to mandatory control and fall under the definition of ‘doubtful’ and may serve to ‘launder’ the proceeds of crime. According to the law, amounts exceeding 600 thousand rubles fall into this the category.

At the same time, the Supreme Court of Russia drew attention to the position of the applicant, who pointed out that the grounds according which the money transfers were made were different. The total amount, which the bank took the commission from, consisted of several parts, and each of them was less than 600 thousand and was based on a separate loan agreement.

This argument was not taken into consideration by the lower instances and actually was ignored.

As a result, the Supreme Court of Russia canceled the decrees issued by the lower instances and sent the dispute for reconsideration (decision № 304-ES21-14940 of December 7, 2021 in case No. A45-20530 / 2020).