Unfair Contract Terms Directive, Article 3 Consumer Rights Directive, Chapter 2, Article 5

CZ:US:2020:2.US.78.19.1

The general court must take into account consumer protection under Article 38 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, if not, it brings the issue of violation of Article 1 (2) in conjunction with Article 10a and Article 4 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, and thereby violates the right of the parties to legal proceedings.

The entrepreneur deals with, among other things, proofreading of texts and offers this service on his website. At the beginning of April 2017, the consumer contacted her by e-mail and ordered a linguistic proofreading of his diploma thesis. The businesswoman emailed a modified text of the diploma thesis to the consumer. However, according to the consumer, the correction was not carried out properly. Therefore, the consumer did not pay the agreed price and claimed defects. The businesswoman provided him with a discount, however, at the end of April 2017, the consumer withdrew from the contract without paying anything to the entrepreneur for the correction.

The businesswoman then demanded a lawsuit to pay CZK 2,399 with accessories. The consumer argued that none of the reasons under Section 1837 of the Civil Code for which he could not withdraw from the contract as a consumer were fulfilled. According to the District Court, a contract was concluded between the consumer and the businesswoman for a work which the consumer took but did not pay for it. According to the district court, the consumer did not prove that the work - i.e., the linguistic proofreading of the text - had defects. The statement of the thesis supervisor about the language shortcomings of the diploma thesis was not considered by the district court to be credible evidence.

Whether not interpreting and not applying the national law in the way the European Union does, results in a violation of the right to a fair trial (judicial protection) pursuant to Article 36 para. 1 of the Charter.

If the general court does not take into account consumer protection under Article 38 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the legislation adopted to ensure such protection, it proceeds in violation of Article 1 (2) in conjunction with Article 10a and Article 4 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, and thereby violates the right of the parties to legal proceedings to judicial protection under Article 36 (1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

URL: https://nalus.usoud.cz/Search/ResultDetail.aspx?id=110649&pos=3&cnt=3&typ=result

Úplné znění: Úplné znění

Výsledky nejsou k dispozici.

Výsledky nejsou k dispozici.

The Constitutional Court annulled the decision of the District Court. According to the District Court, the withdrawal from the contract was invalid, "because it is not logical to withdraw from the contract when the parties to the contract can no longer return performance to each other." Similarly, according to the District Court, the client (consumer) would not be able to withdraw from the work contract, the subject of which was the baking of a cake, after eating the cake.

However, the Constitutional Court said that the judiciary has a duty to interpret and apply national law in the way the European Union does and that the violation of this obligation has already been considered by the Constitutional Court as a violation of the right to a fair trial (judicial protection) pursuant to Article 36 para. 1 of the Charter.