The Court of Appeal of Sassari has convicted “Difesa Debitori”, a financial consultancy firm that offers "protection and assistance to those in debt", for non-compliance.

The person who summoned “Difesa Debtori” to court was one of their clients from Sassari who, assisted by the lawyer Cristian Porcu, after losing the first instance case, appealed to the Court of Appeal.

At the end of 2014, the man, finding himself in financial difficulty and unable to pay the monthly installments to repay a loan of approximately 57 thousand euros to a financial company, turned to "Difesa Debitori" signing a contract for the management of his debt.

According to the judges, "Difesa Debitori" in seven months of assignment limited its activity to sending an email to the financial company to inform it that it had been mandated to manage the debt position, and one to the client to make sure that the creditors had not already communicated the forfeiture of the benefit of the term. Only three months later, when the client was ordered by the creditor to return in a single solution the residual debt that amounted to just over 42 thousand euros, Difesa Debitori made three consecutive settlement proposals rejected by the financial company.

For the Court, the contractual behavior of Difesa Debitori "not only cannot be considered diligent fulfillment of the promised professional service, but appears to be intentionally aimed at postponing the resolution of the client's debt position, in order to collect the greatest possible number of installments of the fee".

For these reasons, and in the introduction considering the advertising on the website to be misleading, also by virtue of a 1 million euro fine issued in 2021 against Difesa Debitori by the Competition and Market Authority, the judges declared the termination of the contract, sentencing Difesa Debitoria to return the 6,621 euros paid by the customer, plus accrued interest, and to pay legal costs.

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