A businesswoman from Kyiv lost 177,290 UAH from her PrivatBank card. Did the court manage to recover the funds?

A woman reported a loss of 177,290 hryvnias from her account opened as an individual entrepreneur (IE). All transactions occurred without her knowledge, and she demands that PrivatBank return a portion of the funds amounting to 37,356 hryvnias. This was stated in a decision by the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, published on August 22, 2024.

On February 9, 2022, while shopping, the woman injured her leg and subsequently noticed that her mobile phone was missing. She went to a branch of JSC CB "PrivatBank" and informed the bank employee about the theft of her mobile phone with the SIM card associated with her financial account, which granted access to her accounts. She requested to block all her bank cards and accounts that held significant amounts of money. Later, she also contacted the police. On February 16, 2022, she discovered that 177,290 hryvnias had been transferred through various transactions from her current account, which she had opened as an IE, where 177,364 hryvnias were held. All transactions occurred without her consent.

The woman's claims as an IE against JSC CB "PrivatBank" for the recovery of 114,690 hryvnias are being considered by a court of different jurisdiction. Regarding the recovery from her personal card accounts of 37,356 hryvnias, she filed a lawsuit in the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.

What did the court decide?

The court partially granted the woman's claim. The joint-stock company commercial bank "PrivatBank" will be ordered to pay her the amount of transactions that occurred from her account from February 9, 2022, to February 16, 2022, inclusive, totaling 28,775 hryvnias, plus 8,581 hryvnias, as well as a penalty of 14,456 hryvnias.

"Thus, having established that the defendant did not prove that the plaintiff's actions or inactions contributed to the loss or unlawful use of her personal identification number (code) or other information allowing for initiating payment operations, the court concluded to satisfy the claim against the joint-stock company commercial bank 'PrivatBank' for the recovery of the transaction amounts that occurred from the plaintiff's account totaling 37,356 hryvnias from February 2, 2022, to February 16, 2022," - the court emphasized.