Brussels, 04/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Spanish procedural legislation does not guarantee the effective application in Spain of the consumer rights contained in the directive on the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees (1999/44/EC), the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on Thursday 3 October (case C-32/12), in response to a question put by Juzgado de Primera Instancia no 2 de Badajoz (Court of First Instance, Section No 2, Badajoz, Spain).
The directive gives consumers the right to require that goods found to be defective or that do not comply with the rules be brought into conformity and, if that is not possible, they may then seek a reduction in the price or rescission of the contract (only a price reduction in cases of minor faults). In the case at issue, the purchaser of a convertible car, the roof of which leaked, brought an action before the Spanish court seeking rescission of the contract of sale and damages, the vendor having refused to replace the vehicle after several unsuccessful repair attempts. The Spanish court found that, as the defect in the vehicle was minor, rescission of the contract of sale could not be granted. It could not grant a reduction in the sale price, under Spanish procedural rules, as the purchaser had not requested such a reduction in her application. A court cannot of its own motion adjudicate on requests which have not been pleaded before it (the principle that judicial decisions must be commensurate with the forms of order sought by the parties). Moreover, no application seeking such a price reduction would be admissible in later proceedings, due to the fact that, under Spanish law, the principle of res judicata extends to all claims which could already have been made in earlier proceedings. The Spanish court asked the Court of Justice whether that Spanish procedural legislation is compatible with the directive.
In its judgment, the Court finds against the Spanish rules. It notes that the purpose of the directive is to ensure a high level of consumer protection. However, the directive merely requires member states to adopt such measures as are necessary to enable consumers to exercise their rights effectively, without indicating the processes under which those rights are to be asserted in judicial proceedings, this being a matter for the internal legal order of each member state. However, those procedural rules must not be such as to make it in practice impossible or excessively difficult to exercise the rights conferred by EU law (“principle of effectiveness”). The Court finds that, under the Spanish system, a consumer who brings proceedings seeking solely rescission of the contract for the sale of goods is definitively deprived of the possibility of benefitting from the right to seek an appropriate reduction in the price of those goods in the event that the court dealing with the dispute should find that, in fact, the lack of conformity in those goods is minor. Only in the event that the consumer had made an application containing an alternative claim seeking such a price reduction would that outcome not occur. However, such an eventuality must be regarded as being highly improbable.
The Court of Justice finds that such procedural rules are liable to undermine the effectiveness of the consumer protection intended by the European Union legislature in so far as they do not allow the national court to recognise of its motion the consumer's right to obtain an appropriate reduction in the price of the goods, even though that consumer is not entitled to refine his initial application or to bring a fresh action to that end. It is for the Spanish courts to do all within their power to ensure that consumers benefit from the high level of protection intended by the directive. (FG/transl.fl)