Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: 4 Ob 28/01y
    • Member State: Austria
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Other
    • Decision date: 22/03/2001
    • Court: Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme court)
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant:
    • Keywords:
  • Directive Articles
    Unfair Contract Terms Directive, Article 5 Unfair Contract Terms Directive, ANNEX I, 1.
  • Headnote
    1.The purpose of class action proceedings is not simply to prohibit the use of clauses that are actually illegal because they give rise to a contractual position for both supplier and consumer that is not in line with the law. Rather, the aim is also to remove clauses that paint an inaccurate or unclear picture of the consumer’s contractual position.
    5.The clauses “account statements are regarded as having been delivered to the customer on the day they are made available on the account statement printer” and “the documents are regarded as being made accessible to the accountholder on the day they are made available for collection from the counter” shift to the consumer the risk of taking (timely) note of a declaration made by the bank. The clauses do not make it clear when they are to be applied, despite the fact that it is far from unlikely that they will be applied and that their application could bring about severe financial detriment for the consumer. Thus, they are not transparent as per § 6 para 3 KSchG.
    2.The following term used in STCs for consumer giro accounts contravenes § 6 para 1 line 5 KSchG because it does not commit the bank to reducing its fees: “The conditions may be altered should there be a change to the costs underpinning these benefits”.
    3.A term in STCs whereby a customer consents to the transfer of “all data pertaining to the opening and running of the account (deposit) to a central credit register and/or to other facilities shared by credit providers” is not transparent as per § 6 para 3 KSchG because it does not make clear the scope of the agreement.
    4.The transparency requirement laid down in § 6 para 3 KSchG can mean that the supplier has a duty to provide complete information should the customer otherwise be unclear about the implications of the clause.
  • Facts
  • Legal issue
    The OGH ruled that this clause was in breach of § 6 para 1 line 5 KSchG because it contained no commitment from the bank to reduce its fees should its costs fall. Rather, any decision to “change” (reduce) costs was purely at the bank’s discretion. In class action proceedings, there could be no assessment of whether the clause could be interpreted as containing a commitment to reduce fees because the aim of such proceedings is to ensure the suitability of STCs that are actually used in practice. The user should formulate his STCs in accordance with the law and not shift the responsibility for doing so to the presiding judge. Thus, the clause must be evaluated on the basis of the worst case scenario for the consumer. What was crucial, therefore, was that the wording of the disputed clause was in breach of § 6 para 1 line 5 KSchG because it failed to stipulate a commitment from the bank to reduce its fees as applicable. This meant the clause was not permissible (headnote 2).
    “The accountholder agrees that the bank may transfer all data pertaining to the opening and running of the account/deposit to a central credit register and/or to other facilities shared by credit providers.”
    The OGH explained that article 5 of Directive 93/13/EEC had been transposed by the transparency requirement under § 6 para 3 KSchG, which the plaintiff had invoked. Thus, the Directive had been brought into line with German case law. It was therefore quite correct to take into account the prevailing legal view in Germany in interpreting the transparency requirement. In concrete terms, the OGH stated that in accordance with the Austrian data protection law, it was in principle necessary to consider whether the party concerned had consented to the use of his data. However, under the data protection law, “consent” was only valid if the party concerned knew which data would be used for which purpose. The disputed clause did not meet this requirement. Thus, it was also in breach of the transparency requirement laid down in § 6 para 3 KSchG because it did not make clear the scope of the agreement (headnote 3).
    “These account statements are regarded as having been delivered to the customer on the day they are made available on the account statement printer”; and “these documents are regarded as being made accessible to the accountholder on the day they are made available for collection from the counter.”

    The OGH scrutinised these clauses in accordance with § 6 para 1 line 3 KSchG, which aims to prevent the responsibility for ensuring access to declarations made by the supplier from being shifted to the consumer. The disputed terms were not tantamount to providing only pseudo-access, because the change in the delivery address had merely shifted the consumer’s sphere of control. However, this shift was not far from providing only pseudo-access because simply having a delivery ready at the counter or on the account statement printer could not be regarded as the same as making a postal delivery direct to the customer’s address. Therefore, in the cases cited above, there was an appreciably greater danger that the customer would not take note of significant declarations/statements than if a postal delivery were made. In reality, changing the delivery address to the bank branch constituted a failure to make the delivery at all. For access to be genuine, it was necessary – unlike in the case of postal deliveries – for the customer not only to take note of any correspondence in his (real) sphere of control, but also to ensure that the correspondence actually reached his sphere of control. Therefore, the plaintiff was right to argue that the disputed clauses shifted to the consumer the risk of taking (timely) note of a declaration made by the bank. This was particularly difficult to reconcile with the purpose of the law in cases where the delivery date marks the beginning of relatively short periods of time and where the consumer runs the risk of not understanding fully his rights unless he regularly and frequently collects his post from the counter and prints out his bank statements. The clause makes no reference to this potential consequence. It therefore does not make clear when it is to be applied, despite the fact that it is far from unlikely that it will be applied and that its application could bring about severe financial detriment for the consumer. Since the transparency requirement can mean that the supplier has a duty to provide complete information should the customer otherwise be unclear about the implications of the clause, both provisions had to be adjudged not transparent as per § 6 para 3 (see headnotes 4 and 5).
  • Decision

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