Cross-border Debt Recovery Blog
by Marco Sposini
Laywer, Milan Bar Association
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The Court of Justice on Articles 6(1) and 7(1) of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts
25 April 2024
The Court of Justice of the European Union, by judgment ECLI:EU:C:2024:360, dated 25 April 2024, in Case C-484/21 – in proceedings between F C C and M A B, two consumers, on the one hand, and Caixabank SA, formerly Bankia SA, a credit institution, on the other, concerning a claim for restitution of sums paid pursuant to a contractual term that has been found to be unfair by a final judicial decision – ruled that:
1. Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts, read in the light of the principle of effectiveness, must be interpreted as precluding the limitation period for an action for restitution of costs that were paid by the consumer, at the time of conclusion of a contract with a seller or supplier, pursuant to a contractual term that has been found to be unfair by a final judicial decision given subsequent to the payment of those costs, from beginning to run on the date of that payment, irrespective of whether that consumer was or could reasonably have been aware of the unfairness of that term at the time of that payment, or before that term was found to be void by that decision.
2. Article 6(1) and Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13 must be interpreted as precluding the limitation period for an action for restitution of costs that were paid by the consumer, pursuant to a term of a contract concluded with a seller or supplier that has been found to be unfair by a final judicial decision, from beginning to run on the date on which the national supreme court delivered an earlier judgment, in a separate case, declaring a standard term corresponding to that term of that contract unfair.
The text is available here