Brazilian justice ordered C6 Bank to return access to a legal account of a Bitcoin seller who had his access interrupted by the institution without prior notice. The closure of the bitcoin seller’s account took place in the month of October 2021, with C6 Bank alleging “suspicious transactions” made by the customer. At the time, he was taken by surprise by the bank’s action, since there was no communication in this regard. Upon seeing his account with almost R$ 7 thousand blocked, the customer sought the C6 SAC in search of further clarification. The attendant just informed that in five days the account could have the money released, which did not happen. Upon returning to the service chat, all account holder data was requested again. After three days, only a small part of the amount was reversed to the customer, who began to suspect misappropriation.
In court, Bitcoin seller asked for values to be unlocked at C6 Bank
As C6 Bank’s service did not work as the seller had hoped, the case ended up in the courts of São Paulo. The defense of the Bitcoin company maintained that the confiscation of its client’s values was a practice not permitted under Brazilian law. To Livecoins, Raphael Souza, a lawyer specializing in cryptocurrencies and responsible for the case, narrated that banks cannot act arbitrarily.
“We tend to fear the unknown. This is what happens with financial institutions in the face of operations involving cryptoassets. However, we cannot let the lack of clarification harm citizens in the free exercise of their rights, that is, trading cryptoassets. The consumer protection code is applicable to financial institutions. Therefore, the Brazilian legal system protects individuals from arbitrary decisions by banks that, unjustifiably, do what they want. Therefore, in light of the correct application of the law, banks cannot act arbitrarily, disrespecting their clients’ equity. Furthermore, if they do, they should be held responsible for it.”
In addition to asking for the reversal of the amount, the customer asked for the payment of BRL 2,000 in moral damages to the bank.
C6 argued that the transaction was suspicious, but it will have to return amounts
After numerous unsuccessful conciliation attempts with the bank, the bitcoin seller filed a lawsuit requesting the refund of the value and compensation for moral damages. However, the action remained unfounded at first instance. That’s because, the judge understood the blockade as fair, since, for him, the operation was “suspicious”. In the second instance, due to the successful appeal before the São Paulo court of law, the C6 Bank was finally ordered to refund the blocked amount and indemnify the seller for moral damages🇧🇷
Justice of São Paulo orders C6 Bank to return money from a P2P bitcoin company. Playback: TJSP. Such an understanding was due to the fact that the legal thesis presented actually demonstrated that the blocking was carried out abusively, without prior notification, as well as it did not provide the seller who traded bitcoin with the opportunity to reallocate his resources, preventing him from freely moving his account and, with that, harming your equity and professional income. The TJSP judges unanimously voted in favor of the seller.