In a judgment published on Thursday 21 December, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in several joined cases (aff. C-38/21, C-47/21 and C-232/21) involving consumers who voluntarily withdrew from leasing or credit contracts concluded with banks linked to car manufacturers.
The three cases in question concern BMW Bank, Volkswagen Bank and Audi Bank. Two cases concern credit agreements for the financing of a second-hand car. The third concerns a leasing contract with no purchase obligation. In all three cases, the cases were originally brought before the Regional Court of Ravensburg in Germany.
The Court of Justice was asked by the German court to give a reference for a preliminary ruling. This allows the courts of the Member States, in the context of a dispute brought before them, to question the Court on the interpretation of Union law or the validity of a Union act. However, the Court is not deciding the national dispute in the main proceedings and is merely giving an opinion.
In all three cases, consumers exercised their right of withdrawal, even though they withdrew “several months or even years after the contract was concluded”. They claim that the 14-day withdrawal period provided for under EU law “has not begun to run, because they were not sufficiently informed of their rights and obligations when the contract was concluded”. For their part, the banks concerned said that a withdrawal after such a long period should be considered abusive.
After examining the cases, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that “a consumer who concludes a leasing agreement for a car ordered in accordance with his or her specifications does not have, on the basis of EU law, a right of withdrawal where the agreement stipulates that he or she is under no obligation to purchase the car at the end of the leasing period”.
With regard to credit agreements, the Court found that “the 14-day withdrawal period provided for such agreements does not start to run if the information which the trader must provide when the agreement is concluded is incomplete or incorrect to the point of affecting the consumer’s assessment of the scope of his or her rights and obligations and to the point of affecting his or her decision to conclude the agreement”.
It also specifies that the exercise of a right of withdrawal beyond the 14 days cannot be considered abusive, if it occurs in this case. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)