PrivatBank refuses to refund a client for funds withdrawn from her account at an ATM, as determined by the court's ruling.

A woman lost 18,698 hryvnias from her card, which were withdrawn from an ATM without her consent. PrivatBank refuses to return the funds. This was stated in the decision of the Darnytsia District Court of Kyiv, published on December 11, 2023.

On June 11, 2023, the woman received a notification about unauthorized access to her "Universal" card account. The card account was blocked by JSC KB "PrivatBank." On June 12, 2023, she contacted the bank, where she was informed about the need to replace her current "Universal" credit card with a new card under the same credit conditions, in order to protect against unauthorized access. The bank employee insisted on signing an insurance contract for property protection, which would take effect immediately after the first payment of the contract's cost. The woman agreed to these proposals, received a new card, and signed the insurance contract. On June 13, 2023, she paid the first installment of the contract's cost.

On June 15, 2023, she received a notification on her phone that 18,698 hryvnias (including withdrawal fees) had been withdrawn from an ATM in the city of Rivne at 5:30 PM on Haharina Street, 67. The funds were subsequently returned to her account. On the same day, this amount was withdrawn from her card account. She contacted the bank to claim the insurance payout; however, JSC KB "PrivatBank" informed her that the insurance compensation would not be paid according to the insurance contract, as the incident occurred within the first 7 days from the commencement of the contract (clause 6.5). Therefore, the insurance contract did not cover the compensation. The client repeatedly appealed to the bank to return the improperly withdrawn funds from her account, but JSC KB "PrivatBank" responded to her requests with a refusal to return these funds.

"On June 15, 2023, a series of transactions were made on the card account. The transactions were conducted using a card added to the Google Pay service. The card was added on June 15, 2023, and a corresponding activation message was sent to the email," said PrivatBank.

What did the court decide?

The court partially granted the claim. The joint-stock company commercial bank "PrivatBank" was ordered to return the amount of 18,698 hryvnias by restoring it to the bank/card account.

"JSC KB 'PrivatBank' did not provide adequate and permissible evidence of circumstances that undoubtedly proved that the plaintiff, as a user of the payment card, contributed to unauthorized access to information on the payment card, her account, or the Privat24 application through her actions or inactions, which allowed the illegal use of the payment card number, CVV code, expiration date, and other information that enabled the initiation of the payment transaction. The statements provided by the defendant from the terms and conditions of banking services of JSC KB 'PrivatBank' are not signed by her, thus cannot be considered part of the contract concluded between the parties. Given the above and taking into account the circumstances that the funds were withdrawn from the plaintiff's accounts at the ATM at the initiative of unidentified individuals as a result of an unauthorized payment transaction, and that the defendant JSC KB 'PrivatBank' took no actions to establish the actual circumstances of the funds' withdrawal from her card account, the court agrees with the validity of the claims regarding the bank's violation of the plaintiff's rights. However, since she has settled the credit debt of 17,997 hryvnias, the effective method of protection will be the bank's obligation to return the funds in the total amount of 18,698 hryvnias, using its own resources. Thus, after reviewing the case materials, the court concluded that the claims are based on law, and the outcome of their resolution is to adopt a decision on their partial satisfaction," the court emphasized.