A Madrid taxi driver who signed a loan of 41,500 euros with a private financial company subject to Law 2/2009 will recover 2,490 euros for the opening commission, declared abusive by the Supreme Court. The high court also invalidates almost all the accessory clauses of the contract and has ordered the lender to also return the amounts collected under them, although it has refused to declare the loan itself usurious. When a judge declares a usurious loan, he determines that the interest applied is higher than the value of the money.
Sentence 562/2026, of April 14, establishes doctrine by confirming that when the lender is not a bank, usury must be measured with the average of the alternative credit market and not with the statistics of the Bank of Spain. Usury, when talking about loans, is the charging of excessively high, disproportionate and abusive interests, according to the definition given by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers.
In April 2017, the plaintiff signed before a notary a loan with collateral security (it is a real guarantee contract in which a debtor delivers movable property such as jewelry, money, shares or vehicles to a creditor to ensure compliance with an obligation, generally a loan, according to Ieaf Business School) on his taxi license from the Madrid City Council.
He received 41,500 euros to be repaid in 60 months, with a fixed ordinary interest of 12.50% (APR of 16.38%) and a late payment interest of 14.50%. From the first day, Inverpréstamo withheld 5,750 euros to collect the opening commission plus formalization expenses.
The Court of First Instance no. 6 of Fuenlabrada and the Provincial Court of Madrid ruled in favor of the taxi driver in 2022 and 2024. Both courts considered that the interest of 12.50% was notably higher than normal money, because the average of consumer loans of between one and five years in duration from the Bank of Spain in 2017 was 8.49%, and they declared the contract void but the finance company appealed in cassation.
The Supreme Court changes the comparison reference and rules out usury
The Civil Chamber corrects the two previous instances and applies the doctrine of the Plenary ruling 257/2023. When the lender is not a banking entity, but a private company subject to Law 2/2009, the loan rate should not be compared with the statistics of the Bank of Spain, but with the rates of the alternative credit market, which in 2017 reached an average of 14.61% for loans with a mortgage guarantee of the Law 2/2009 segment, a reference that the high court applies by extension to the pledge on the taxi license.
Since the APR on the taxi driver’s loan was 16.38%, the high court concluded that the interest was not notably higher than normal in that segment of the market.
The Supreme Court adds that the loan was guaranteed with a pledge on a taxi license, not with a property, an asset of variable value and complex execution that justifies a greater margin for the lender. It also emphasizes that the five-year period was not short and that the contracting party received the binding offer with the APR as a transparent element of price comparison.
Almost all commissions in the contract are abusive and must be returned
Despite saving the interest on the loan, the high court declares almost all of the accessory clauses null and void as abusive. The opening commission of 2,490 euros, equivalent to 6% of the borrowed capital, is considered disproportionate because the market average then ranged between 0.25% and 1.50%. The non-payment fee of 30 euros for each returned receipt is canceled because it could be repeated automatically, added to late payment interest and transferred the burden of proving that the transaction had not been carried out on the consumer.
Also invalidated are the commission for issuing a debt certificate of 90 euros, indiscriminately, and the commission for cancellation of registration, granting of a payment letter and transfer to signature of 900 euros, which compensated for services for which the lender should not charge.
The penalty clause for non-compliance of 4,500 euros, greater than 10% of the capital lent, is declared abusive due to its purely sanctioning purpose. And sections f) and h) of the early maturity clause are deleted as they allow the loan to be terminated in the event of any default, even incidental.
The default interest of 14.50% is the only penalty clause that survives. The Civil Chamber applies the jurisprudential doctrine that considers the surcharge of up to two percentage points on the remunerative interest to be non-abusive. As the ordinary rate was 12.50% and the delay rate was 14.50%, exactly two points above, the clause is maintained.
Refund of the amount collected and costs for the financial company
The ruling forces Inverpréstamo to return to the taxi driver the 2,490 euros of the opening commission plus all the amounts charged under the rest of the clauses declared null, along with the legal interest from the date of each payment. The costs of the first instance also fall on the lender.
The ruling reiterates the doctrine of the Civil Chamber on banking commissions within the framework of article 5 of Law 2/2009 and articles 85.6, 87.5 and 89.3 of the Consolidated Text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users, available in the BOE.