The Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed the legal position of the Croatian Supreme Court according to which the limitation period in case of nullity of an agreement begins to run on the day on which a final court decision establishes the nullity of the agreement, the Supreme Court said.

This legal opinion was adopted by the Civil Branch of the Supreme Court on 30 January 2020, and it has now been confirmed by a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-485/19 from 22 April 2021, the Supreme Court said.

The decision took the view that the provisions of the Slovak Civil Code whereby the limitation period for the right to claim restitution in cases of nullity of a consumer agreement begins to run on the day on which a payment is made, are not in line with the EU law, although the limitation period itself is not contrary to EU law.

The legal opinion adopted before the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union shows that the Supreme Court interprets domestic law in accordance with the principle of effectiveness as one of the fundamental principles of European Union law, the Croatian Supreme Court said.

Franak association: No statute of limitations for claims based on established nullity

The Franak association of debtors with loans which used to be pegged to the Swiss franc, which won a class action against banks after the foreign currency clause in the case of loans pegged to the Swiss franc was found to be null and void, posted on its Facebook profile that it was pleased with the confirmation and could now safely say that there is no way back to the old way of determining the statute of limitation, which applied before 30 January 2020.