— Limitation periods
As stated above, the Court (463), in principle, considers reasonable limitation periods to be acceptable in the interests of legal certainty, for instance, in relation to claims for reimbursement of overpaid amounts based on unfair contract terms. So far, the Court has not decided what would constitute a reasonable limitation period in that respect and has not ruled on its starting point. However, the Court has been asked to provide guidance on the latter aspect (464). A distinction has to be made between limitation periods laid down in law and the temporal limitation of the effects of a court's ruling on the unfairness of a contract term and the associated consequences (465), such as the entitlement of consumers to reimbursement (466), such temporal limitation being inadmissible (467). In any event, as stated in Section 4.2, the non-binding character of unfair contract terms cannot in itself be subject to limitation periods. This implies that consumers can always rely on this protection when confronted with claims from sellers or suppliers based on unfair contract terms, either by invoking unfairness themselves or by way of ex officio control, without being time-barred (468). The same must apply to requests to declare contract terms unfair in individual proceedings or injunctions within the meaning of Article 7(2) UCTD.
Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.