Alpha Bank, with a sense of responsibility towards its customers and the wider public, wishes to inform about the decision of the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens on the representative action brought by E.K.POIZO. regarding the service package myAlpha Benefit Base.
As the bank states in its announcement, the Court rejected the main claims of EKPOIZO concerning the legality of the Bank's general terms of transactions, judging that it fully complies with the content of the applicable legislative framework (Law 4537/2018 on payment services).
Therefore, the decision does not affect the validity of the contractual relationships of customers who have chosen to use myAlpha Benefit Base, nor does it question the possibility of providing this specific service package to the Bank's customers.
At the same time, the decision includes judgments concerning the adequacy of certain elements of the written information provided to customers. This will be addressed, in cases where required, with revised, supplementary information to customers, in full compliance with the directions of the decision.
In the same context and until the completion of the new information cycle, Alpha Bank has already suspended the application of the monthly charge for myAlpha Benefit Base for those customers who had received the written information that was the subject of the trial.
Alpha Bank is committed to offering its customers transaction programs with real value, with clear and complete information that allows each customer to enjoy a modern service package and to decide with full awareness.
What EKPOIZO states
For its part, the consumer organization EKPOIZO in its announcement claims the following:
“The Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens, with its decision no. 183/2026, prohibits ALPHA BANK from imposing the monthly charge of 0.80 euros on its customers who maintain with it deposit accounts “Simple Savings” or “Simple Current”. The decision was issued following a representative action by EKPOIZO against ALPHA BANK and the Multi-Member Court of First Instance declares it temporarily enforceable. Therefore, ALPHA BANK is obliged to immediately stop charging thousands of deposit accounts to which it has imposed the monthly subscription of 0.80 euros.
Specifically, ALPHA BANK, with letters sent last year to consumers who maintained deposit accounts, invoking their status as payment accounts, notified that it would add to the above accounts the so-called my Alpha Benefit Base transaction package, meaning that consumers would be able to carry out a series of transactions for free. For this reason, their accounts would be charged 0.80 euros per month, regardless of whether they would use the supposed benefits. At the same time, it gave consumers a two-month deadline to object to its letter, so that the charge and the “benefits” would not apply.
The Multi-Member Court of First Instance ruled that the information provided by the bank to consumers in its letter was misleading. And this is because the information provided by the bank about these transactions was non-transparent, resulting in consumers being misled into thinking that they could now carry out free transactions which, however, were already being offered, among other reasons because the law did not allow otherwise, without any charge. Thus, the bank presented as benefits of the privilege account standing orders or transfers for bill payments to various organizations, money transfers up to 500 EUR per day via IRIS Payments, prepaid card loading regardless of amount, etc.
Therefore, the Court ruled that the Bank violated its obligations of transparency and clear information when introducing this charge. Consequently, the term providing for this charge is abusive and invalid. It therefore obliges the bank to stop charging consumers with the above monthly fee.
As in the case of the National Bank, the decision is declared by the Court to be temporarily enforceable. The Court also imposes on the bank a financial penalty of 40,000 euros. It follows that since the imposition of this charge was found to be illegal, ALPHA BANK must reverse the charges imposed on consumers as a result of the above illegal practice.
It is noteworthy that the above Alpha Bank package provided only the possibility of one incoming and one outgoing transfer (which, if its charge were allowed, would not exceed the amount of 0.50 euros), at a time when the market offers payment service packages with the same monthly fee that provide the possibility for 50 similar transactions. It is clear, therefore, that the non-transparent and misleading information, in conjunction with the procedure followed, i.e. the package being imposed due to the consumer's inaction to the letter sent to them, are intended to surprise consumers, exploit their lack of familiarity, and impose charges for services which consumers ultimately do not care about or may not need.
EKPOIZO points out that banks systematically over the past year, treating consumers' deposit accounts as payment accounts, seek, with misleading and non-transparent methods, to impose “service packages”, and as is proven in this case, pretextually, for which consumers have not expressed interest, with the aim of ultimately harming consumers' deposit accounts.
It is also noted that the above is the second court decision issued on the same matter, as two months earlier decision no. 128/2026 of the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens had prohibited the same practice at the National Bank”.
Of course, EKPOIZO will continue with dedication and consistency its legal battle for the general prohibition of the practice of banks to impose, through consumer inaction, such significant changes to their contracts, as well as for the prohibition of many other abusive practices and charges.
It also calls on the competent authorities, and especially the Independent Authority for Market Control and Consumer Protection, to finally exercise their supervisory and sanctioning powers and not behave as indifferent observers.