The Abolition of Unfair Terms according to EU Legislation

• Author: Gina Livioara Goga
• Pages: 307-311

Legal Sciences in the New Millennium

307

The Abolition of Unfair Terms according to EU Legislation

Gina Livioara Goga1

Abstract: In the member States of the European Union, Directive. 93/13 / EEC on unfair terms in Europe

consumer contracts provides the legal interpretation on unfair terms in consumer contracts with p rofessionals.

However, experience and correlating the Romanian national court jurisprudence of other European countries

demonstrate that the process of standardization and harmonization of European Union law in this matter

supports deficiencies, still absorb ing the directive of unfair terms and still giving contrary solutions in the

courts. The national legislation, Law no. 193/2000 must be completed since the CJEU case law in the field, so

mostly for solving these cases the procedure is cumbersome.

Keywords: unfair terms; contracts; EU legislation

1. Introduction

According to the Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts2,

the purpose of this Directive is to approximate the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of

the Member States relating to unfair terms in contracts concluded between a seller or supplier and a

consumer.

A contractual term shall be regarded as unfair if has not been individually negotiated, which is

contrary to the requirement of good faith and when it’s causes a significant imbalance in the partiesț

rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer. That is why 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.

The Romanian Civil Code3 state that the parties are free to conclude any contracts and determine their

contents, but within the limits of law, public order and morals, or if the stipulation of unfair terms in

consumer contracts associated idea bad faith, this question can be qualified as unlawful, the penalty is

absolute nullity.

1Senior Lecturer, PhD, Faculty of La w, “Danubius” University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Boulevard, 800654

Galati, Romania, Tel.: +40.372.361.102, fax: +40.372.361.290, Corresponding author: ginagoga@univ-danubius.ro

2 Official Journal L 095, 21/04/1993 P. 0029 – 0034.

3Law no 287/2009 on the Civil Code republished in Official Monitor, Part I no. 505 of July 15, 2011.