Exchanges Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto-exchange house in Brazil, must pay compensation to the plaintiff for about approximately 4,323.06 reals, the equivalent to USD 1,122.84.
Through a statement published on October 16th by the judicial court of Sao Paulo, it was known that the Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange company, Exchanges Mercado Bitcoin, faces a lawsuit for breaching the time lapses in which it should offer the Bitcoin Gold cryptocurrency, a variant of the famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC). The lawsuit puts Brazil’s largest and most important exchange house in a difficult situation.
According to what is known about the issue, the client of the company submitted the claim arguing that at the time when Mercado Bitcoin manages to introduce the cryptocurrency on the platform the value of the asset changed, so it generated great losses. This information was corroborated by the judge who concluded that, in effect, the company caused losses to the plaintiff.
On this matter, the document issued by the Court of Justice of the State of Sao Paulo gave details regarding what happened.
“In this case, the plaintiff claimed that the value of the Bitcoin Gold unit on 10/23/2017 was quoted at USD 479. However, the plaintiff could not negotiate these assets, given that the Bitcoin Gold trading platform was created and enabled to users on 07/30/2018”, the document explains.
In this way, the plaintiff said there is a delay in the activation of this asset of more than 9 months so the plaintiff stated that the company did not give a convincing argument justifying the delay.
On the other hand, the defense of the crypto-exchange company argued that it decided to activate the use of this cryptocurrency on its platform when the market stabilized. Mercado Bitcoin says it considered the launching date was the best time for its use and could be used in the surest possible.
This statement was dismissed by the judge, who argued that the defendant did not submit a contractual service provision document that could expressly agree to the right of retention of its users’ assets in certain circumstances or a certain period.
Therefore, it is inferred that the impossibility of negotiating the plaintiff’s assets retained by the defendant, characterizes “the abusive practice in the face of the plaintiff’s vulnerability”.
Given the arguments, the judge decided as a final verdict, the ruling in favor of the plaintiff, authorizing compensation to the plaintiff of 4,000.00 Brazilian reals. That is only a part of the damages caused to the client.
Part of the sentence reads as follows: “Before the exposed, judgment in part of the initial order and, based on art. 487, subsection I, of the Code of Civil Prosecution, I render the fact disabled, with resolution of merit, for the purpose of condemning the defendant to reimburse the plaintiff the amount of 4,323.06 reals (BRL), (equivalent to USD 1,122.84), referring to the amount of 2,340.20 Bitcoin Gold available on the digital commerce platform managed by the defendant”.
The judge concluded that, in addition to this, there are no moral damages to repair so the amount represents just enough for the time it took for the company to enable the cryptocurrency.
By María Rodríguez
