The court said that the intermediary fees charged by the loan intermediary companies obviously did not match the cost and content of their services, and that part of the fees should be refunded.
Recently, the People's Court of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area (Free Trade Zone) concluded a contract dispute caused by the high intermediary fees charged by the loan intermediary company, and finally ordered an information technology consulting service company to refund the service fee of 18,490 yuan to Zhang.
In early July 2022, an information technology consulting service company contacted Zhang and informed him that he could help apply for a loan from the bank. On the 22nd of the same month, Zhang signed the "Financing Intermediary Service Contract" with an information technology consulting service company due to financial needs, stipulating that Zhang entrusted an information technology consulting service company to provide him with loan agency information consulting services for relevant banks, entities with capital lending qualifications, and financial institutions, and assisted Zhang in completing the relevant loan matters, and the intermediary service fee for entrusting financing loans was 36,000 yuan. Zhang pressed his fingerprint at the intermediary service fee of 36,000 yuan.
On the same day, with the help of an information technology consulting company, Zhang successfully applied for a loan from a bank, with an annual interest rate of 3.9%, a loan amount of 171,500 yuan, and a loan term of 1 year.
After Zhang obtained the loan, he paid an intermediary service fee of 36,000 yuan to an information technology consulting service company. Now, on the grounds that an information technology consulting service company used fraudulent means to charge high service fees, Zhang demanded that an information technology consulting service company refund all service fees.
An information technology consulting service company believes that its company comprehensively determines the charging standard of the intermediary service contract based on factors such as customer debt inquiry, credit card utilization rate, overdue and repayment ability, and the contract between the two parties is legal and valid, and the service fee collected should not be refunded to Zhang.
The People's Court of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area (Free Trade Zone) held after trial that Zhang, as a person with full capacity for civil conduct, could independently carry out civil juristic acts, and when signing the contract, he should carefully read the content of the contract, especially important terms such as the rights and obligations of both parties. When an information technology consulting service company requires him to put his fingerprint on the intermediary service fee and the payment method, Zhang should be more vigilant and handle it carefully. Now Zhang's signature at the end of the contract and the fingerprint on the relevant part of the contract indicate that he has confirmed the content of the contract, and the contract has been established and has taken legal effect on Zhang. At the same time, considering the issue of whether the intermediary service fee is reasonable, after calculation, the service fee paid by Zhang accounts for about 21% of the loan amount, although the laws and regulations do not clearly stipulate the charging standard of the financial intermediary service fee, the collection of the service fee should still be determined based on the actual service content provided by the intermediary, the service cost incurred, whether the borrower has obtained the loan and the specific amount, and other factors.
In this case, the annual interest rate of Zhang's loan was 3.9%, and the service fee agreed in the intermediary service contract was close to 21% of the loan amount, which obviously exceeded the reasonable scope of normal financing. In order to maintain the order of the financial market, the intermediary service fee was adjusted to 10% of the loan amount as appropriate, and an information technology consulting service company was ordered to refund part of the service fee to Zhang.
After the judgment was rendered, an information technology consulting service company actively performed the content of the judgment, and both parties expressed their acceptance of the judgment and dismissed the lawsuit.
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