A credit agreement must clearly and concisely state how the time limit for withdrawal is to be calculated, according to a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered on Thursday 26 March (Case C-66/19).
In a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Saarbrücken Regional General Court, the Court was asked to interpret Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers. In particular, they were to look at the mandatory information, communication of which to the consumer determines the starting point of the time limit for withdrawal. It also had to determine whether the fact that a credit agreement merely refers—with regard to compulsory information—to a national provision that itself refers to other provisions of German law, is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the directive.
In its judgment, the Court considers that the directive must be interpreted as meaning that credit agreements for consumers must clearly and concisely state how the withdrawal period is to be calculated.
It emphasises the fundamental importance of the right of withdrawal and stresses that, in order to exercise that right properly, the consumer must know in advance the conditions, time limit, and procedures for exercising that right.
The Court further concludes that the directive precludes a credit agreement from referring to a national provision that itself refers to other provisions of the law of the Member State in question, as in the present case.
It points out that, according to the directive, the withdrawal period does not begin to run until the information has been sent to the consumer, should that date be later than the day upon which the credit agreement is concluded.
However, in the case of a cascade return, as in the present case, the consumer is not in a position to determine the scope of his contractual commitment on the basis of the contract, nor to check whether all the requisite elements are included in the contract which he has concluded, nor, a fortiori, to check whether the time limit for withdrawal available to them has begun to run, she explains.
See judgement: https://bit.ly/2Up2HPj (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)