Legal Literature

Unfair Contract Terms Directive, link

In this annotation of judgement C-26/13 of the European Court of Justice, the author argues that the European Court of Justice broadly defines the notion "plain" and "intelligible" as stipulated in article 4(2) of the Directive. Clauses should not only be grammatically correct, they should also allow the consumer to understand the (economic) consequences of the clause. Although the author applauds the judgement, she also stresses that there is a duty for consumers to actively inform themselves. Secondly, the author investigates the role of supplementing national laws, and comes to the conclusion that the national judge should always be allowed to supplement the agreement with national, ordinary law when this is in line with the interests of the trader.