The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive''
93/13/EEC
is a

European Union directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires member states to achieve particular goals without dictating how the member states achieve those goals. A directive's goals have to be made the goals of one or more new or changed n ...

(issued as a "European Economic Community directive" in 1993) governing the use of unfair or onerous terms used by businesses (referred to as "sellers" or "suppliers") in their

contractual A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of those a ...

dealings with

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s. The directive was amended in 2011 (by Directive 2011/83/EU) and in 2019 (by Directive 2019/2161).EUR-Lex
Consolidated text: Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts (as amended)
published on 28 May 2022, accessed on 7 November 2024 Subject to safeguards, a

contractual term A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as ...

which has been individually negotiated by the seller and consumer will not be treated as "unfair".

Purpose

The directive reflects the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

's desire to establish a single or internal market with progressive

harmonisation of law In the European Union, harmonisation of law (or simply harmonisation) is the process of creating common standards across the internal market. Though each EU member state has primary responsibility for the regulation of most matters within their ju ...

s, so that goods and services, persons and capital can move more freely across the Union, whilst aligning the framework for protecting consumers. The

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...

, in its jurisprudence on cases raising unfair terms issues, has noted that The directive therefore requires member states to ensure that unfair terms are not binding on consumers.

National law

Hungary

Unfair terms in consumer contracts are declared void by paragraph 209/A(2) of the Hungarian Civil Code, which also states in paragraph 209(1) that Paragraph 2(d) of Government Decree 18/1999 (II. 5.) on terms to be considered unfair in consumer contracts, dated 5 February 1999 (Magyar Közlöny 1999/8), states that

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1994 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 are UK statutory instruments, which implemented the EU's directive.National provisions communicated by the member states concerning Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts
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References

External links