Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: 7C/817/2014
    • Member State: Slovakia
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Court decision, first degree
    • Decision date: 24/02/2015
    • Court: District Court Skalica
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff: EOS KSI Slovensko, s.r.o.
    • Defendant: G. E., U.. XX.XX.XXXX, R. E. X/XXXX, E., Slovak citizen
    • Keywords: consumer, consumer debt, contract law, proportionality, unfair terms
  • Directive Articles
    Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive, Article 1, 2., (a) Unfair Contract Terms Directive, Article 3, 2.
  • Headnote
    A consumer contract shall be each contract concluded between the trader and the consumer, irrespective of the legal form of the contract.
  • Facts
    The predecessor of the plaintiff, Tatra banka a.s., concluded a contract on a consumer credit with the defendant in August 2008. Subsequently, Tatra banka a.s. assigned the receivable to the plaintiff in November 2013.

    On the basis of the contract, the consumer credit in the amount of EUR 6 638,78 with yearly interest rate of 16,9 %, was provided to the defendant. The parties have agreed to 60 monthly payments in the amount of EUR 165,64. The contract included a preprinted statement that the contract shall be governed by Sections 497 – 507 of Act No. 513/1991 Coll. Commercial Code, as amended ("Commercial Code"), Act. No. 258/2001 Coll. on consumer credit, as amended and Sections 788 et. seq. of Act No. 40/1964 Coll. Civil Code, as amended ("Civil Code").

    The plaintiff demanded the payment of the outstanding amount and claimed that there was a commercial relationship between the contractual parties and therefore the relationship shall be governed by the provisons of the Commercial Code.

  • Legal issue
    The court decided that the contract shall be considered as a consumer contract in line with the Civil Code.

    The court concluded that there is no basis for the claim of the plaintiff and that the contractual clause regulating the monthly payments did not meet the requirements for consumer credit which required a clear definition of the amount and dates of the installments. The contractual clause regulating the monthly payment was specified contrary to the requirements for consumer credit.

    If the consumer does not have any impact on the content of the contractual clauses, the court must consider the proportionality of each contractual clause.

    The court concluded that as a result of the aforementioned, the consumer credit must be regarded as agreed without any interest and other fees. The court also considered the practice that when in doubt regarding the content of consumer contracts, the interpretation that is more favourable for the consumer shall apply.

    The court has counted a new outstanding amount that the defendant is obliged to pay.
  • Decision

    Is the legal form of a contract determinative to establish whether the contract constitutes a consumer contract?

    URL: https://obcan.justice.sk/infosud/-/infosud/i-detail/rozhodnutie/bd97017a-1505-4d1a-b3ea-a09eefeaaecb%3A2e8ae858-1340-4708-8cef-46d6a0cf66ba

    Full text: Full text

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  • Result
    The defendant was obliged to the payment of a reduced amount to the plaintiff.