Luxembourg, 22/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Only natural persons are covered by the notion of unfair clauses in contracts between professionals and consumers, according to a press release from the European Court of Justice in the Cape/Idealservice cases. The press release explains that two contracts for the supply of automatic drinks dispensers installed by Idealservice on the premises of the companies OMAI and Cape gave rise to disputes since the latter two companies maintain that the clause stipulating that any disputes must be brought before the Viadana magistrate (in Mantova, Italy) is not allowed by the Italian Civil Code and therefore does not apply to the parties to the contracts in question. Idealservice told the Viadana magistrate that Cape and OMAI could not be considered as "consumers" for the purposes of the application of Directive 93/13 on unfair clauses in contracts signed with consumers, since it was companies and not natural persons that signed the contracts as part of their business activities.