european-union breach-of-contract banking fees accounting
If a European bank keeps debiting illegal account management charges, is there a way to block debits or even enforce a SEPA direct debit charge back?
<p>If the European bank at which you have an account keeps debiting illegal account management charges from said account (e.g. an arbitrary 300% of the amount contractually agreed) and doesn't react to complaints, is there technically any way to block further debits and maybe even enforce a SEPA direct debit charge back (as guaranteed by EU regulation for 8 weeks from the booking date)? Are debits conducted <em>by your own bank</em> the same legally as any other direct debit by 3rd parties?</p>
<p>Or to dumb down the question: Who would be the &quot;bigger fish&quot; with regard to EU banks that private customers can get involved in their own interest? Are there some financial regulators/enforcers/institutions/agencies in EU law that keep banks in check when they misbehave?</p>
<p>Clarifications as per request:</p>
<ol>
<li>It is not my own bank, but I know of a relevant case.</li>
<li>It is in the same country as mine.</li>
<li>The bank is acting for itself, no third party involved.</li>
<li>To my knowledge, no SEPA mandate was issued to the bank explicitly, but this question cannot be answered by the enquirer as the answer to this question is what his question is about.</li>
</ol>

<p>As I understand it, it is not a SEPA <em>transfer</em> at all, it is a dispute about charges. There are two possible scenarios:</p>
<ul>
<li>The bank and the customer disagree about what management charges are due, and the bank applies <em>their interpretation of the contract</em> anyway.</li>
<li>The bank and the customer agree that lower management charges are due, but because of some error their system charges the higher amount anyway.</li>
</ul>
<p>I find the latter unlikely. If that were the case, someone needs to talk to the banking regulation authorities to look into the processes and systems. That leaves the former. The customer/consumer and the bank are in a dispute about the terms of their contract.</p>
<p>The details of how to sue depend on the national legal system. Before a lawsuit is filed (possibly a high expense/high risk approach), one might talk to consumer protection advocates to see if the problem is part of a pattern with that bank, if others have protested the charges and won, or lost.</p>
