Has your credit card been stolen? Pay up

Offender purchased jewellery and electronics with the forged card. (Supplied)

Published Monday, December 26, 2011

By Mohammed Al Sadafy

Dubai Court of Cassation has established an important rule for the use of credit card and the responsibility of the three parties - the bank, the card holder and the shop or the place of purchase.

It ruled that the party responsible for the error during the use of credit card will be the one who bears the responsibility for the loss.

However the court ruled that the cardholder is obliged to inform the bank in case of loss or card theft. And if the card holder fails to inform the bank then he’ll solely bear the loss of purchases.

The Court of Cassation, according to the ruling, is the sole body to decide which party is responsible for the error.

The Court of Cassation also ruled that it may not seek view of the Visa Global Securities as long as there are enough supporting documents to decide the case.

These principles were issued in a case which was filed by a bank operating in the UAE against a client. The bank had asked the court to make customer pay Dh54,000 which he spent through credit card issued by the bank.

The bank said it had filed a case preventing the customer from leaving the country for failing to pay the due amount.

Meanwhile the Court of First Instance issued its verdict asking the credit card holder to pay the amount.

The client appealed the ruling to the Appellate Court which upheld the appealed ruling. The client again challenged the ruling before the Court of Cassation which issued legal principles in this regard.

The card holder appeal was based on the fact that he was not the one who signed the purchasing bills but the court rejected his argument.

The Court of Cassation said that since the shopkeeper checked the validity of the card and verified the signature of the card’s owner and the specimen signature recorded on the card itself, the customer is responsible for the payment to the bank.

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