Relevant Articles: Article 3(1) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts
This request concerns the interpretation of Article 3(1) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts (OJ 1993 L 95, p. 29) (‘the Directive’).
On 26 June 2005, Mr Menéndez Álvarez entered into a contract with Constructora Principado for the purchase of a dwelling (‘the contract’). Initially, Mr Menéndez Álvarez paid a total sum of EUR 1 223.87, of which EUR 1 000 was for the municipal tax on the increase in value of urban land (‘the capital gains tax’) and EUR 223.87 was for connecting the dwelling to the water and drainage system. Subsequently, Mr Menéndez Álvarez brought an action against Constructora Principado before the Juzgado de Primera Instancia n° 2 de Oviedo (Court of First Instance No 2, Oviedo) for repayment of those sums. The claim was based on the ground that clause 13 of the contract, under which the purchaser had to pay those sums, should be considered unfair by virtue of Article 10a of General Law 26/1984, as amended by Law 7/1998, in that it was not negotiated, and it caused a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract. In its defence, Constructora Principado contended that the clause had been negotiated with the purchaser and that there was no significant imbalance when the sums claimed were compared with the total price paid by the purchaser for the purchase of his dwelling.
Article 3 of the European Union law Directive provides that a contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer. A term shall always be regarded as not individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term, particularly in the context of a pre-formulated standard contract. Article 5 of the Directive provides: ‘In the case of contracts where all or certain terms offered to the consumer are in writing, these terms must always be drafted in plain, intelligible language. Where there is doubt about the meaning of a term, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer shall prevail ...’
In the light of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the question referred is that Article 3(1) of the Directive must be interpreted as meaning that the existence of a ‘significant imbalance’ does not necessarily require that the costs charged to the consumer by a contractual term have, as regards that consumer, a significant economic impact having regard to the value of the transaction in question, but can result solely from a sufficiently serious impairment of the legal situation in which that consumer, as a party to the contract, is placed by reason of the relevant national provisions, whether this be in the form of a restriction of the rights which, in accordance with those provisions, he enjoys under that contract, or a constraint on the exercise of those rights, or the imposition on him of an additional obligation not envisaged by the national rules.
Read the case C‑226/12
